It’s fall migration time, when birds are flocking to warmer climates for the winter. In this weekend’s “Into The Wild,” KYW’s John McDevitt takes a look at one bird species that puts on a show before it goes.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — From Roxborough to Rittenhouse Square, dozens of flocks of chimney swifts have been seen flying in swirling formations over rooftops in the region at dusk.
“Ancestrally, we believe that they would nest in large hollow trees and they would attach their nest to the inside of the tree. Now they breed in chimneys,” said Keith Russell, program manager for urban conservation with Audubon Pennsylvania. Russell is based in Philadelphia.
He says the birds are roosting and getting ready for their long flight to South America for the winter.
“During migration, there are a lot of chimney swifts that are coming through Philadelphia and they have large communal roosts in big chimneys. And usually around sunset they will start flying around the chimney in big swirling masses and they’ll start diving down into the chimney one after the other. And it’s a pretty amazing thing to see as they go down vertically at first, onto these chimneys.”
Some people compare the phenomenon to the flight pattern of the fictitious flying monkeys from “The Wizard of Oz.” Others say they look like flying cigars.
“So basically they do look like a sort of cigar with little narrow wings on it. And they flutter around,” he said. “Sometimes people wonder if they are swallows, but swallows tend to have longer tails and different-shape tails. Chimney swifts have these very, very short tails.”
If chimney swifts make their way into your chimney, you’re stuck with them until they leave. They are federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
An Elkins Park resident is glad the birds are protected.
“It’s kind of beautiful to have them here in Elkins Park,” said the homeowner.
“I think it’s a tough thing for people to balance — the importance of environmental sustainability and living in a symbiotic relationship with the other plants, animals and creatures … and then their property rights.”
Kevin Bleam is a certified chimney sweep with Jamison Home Services. Before he caps a chimney to keep the birds out he has to make sure they’re gone because of the federal protection.
“They really flutter their wings. They are not always noticeable right away, looking down or looking up, because a lot of times chimneys have slight offsets in them. But if they hear you in or around the chimney you’ll start to hear a fluttering sound. The first time I heard them it kind of freaked me out, I thought there were vipers down in somebody’s chimney.”