It’s been wonderful to see people across Greenhill and Lowedges coming together to give swifts a better chance of finding a safe nesting place for future generations.

This month, four swift boxes and a swift attraction caller were installed at Lowedges Community Centre. The installation followed a well-attended swift talk, brilliantly organised by Greener Greenhill, creating welcome new nesting sites at the heart of the community. Greener Greenhill also funded the box fitting, and our swift talk inspired local residents to install swift bricks and boxes at home – a brilliant example of local action making a real impact.

The community centre boxes were made by Sheffield resident John Whitton, who generously gave his time and paid for the materials himself. Using durable Eurocell board and working from plans we provided – John made a wonderful contribution to the project. 

This builds on earlier action nearby, by Sheffield City Council. In 2024, after storm damage led to emergency roof repairs at Haslam Crescent, Action for Swifts swift bricks and soffit boxes were installed across four blocks of maisonettes, creating 48 nesting opportunities for swifts. Within the first breeding season, red-listed house sparrows had already moved into some of the spaces – a lovely sign that the new nesting opportunities were quickly proving invaluable to local nesting birds, and great news as house sparrows often act as natural swift callers.

In May 2026, three built-in swift bricks were also installed at Lowedges Primary Academy, along with a swift attraction caller. You can read more about that project here.

Across Sheffield, projects like these depend on a wonderful mix of residents, schools, volunteers and local organisations – all working together to give swifts a better chance. 

Much of this city-wide fitting wouldn’t happen without Jan from Nestworks  –  Sheffield’s habitat hero – whose expertise has helped make so many swift installations possible.

Thank you to everyone involved. The future looks bright for swifts – and house sparrows – across S8.

Download our swift information leaflets below:

Sheffield Swift Network talks:

Helping swifts find nesting places:

For residents:

For community/service/commercial buildings:

For schools:

Sheffield Swift Network
📧 sheffieldswiftnetwork@gmail.com
🌐 sheffieldswiftnetwork.org
📞 07850 799 891