First published in 1956, Swifts in a Towerstill offers astonishing insights into swifts' private lives along with thoughts about their life style and wider issues. Now more than sixty years later swifts have been studied even more thoroughly, with technology unimaginable in the 1950s. This continues to reveal even more of their secrets, so this edition, published in association with the RSPB for their Oxford Swift Cityproject includes a new chapter by Andrew Lack, bringing the story of this remarkable bird into the 21st Century.

Chimney Swifts, birds that nest and roost in chimneys, have been historically abundant in North America. But by the late 1980s, the number of swifts migrating to North America from the Amazon River Basin had declined. A growing number of people across North America are now constructing nesting towers and conducting Chimney Swift conservation projects in their own communities. With Chimney Swift Towers, concerned bird conservationists have a step-by-step guide to help them create more habitat for these beneficial, insect-eating birds. Chimney Swift experts Paul and Georgean Kyle give directions for building freestanding wooden towers, wooden kiosk towers, masonry towers, and other structures. Included are - design basics, - lists of materials needed, - useful diagrams and photographs, - and detailed instructions on site preparation, tower construction, installation, and maintenance. Anyone with basic woodworking or masonry skills and an interest in wildlife conservation will find this publication helpful. That includes do-it-yourselfers, homeowners involved in creating backyard habitat for wildlife, landscape and structural architects, park and wildscape managers, wildlife management area professionals, nature centers, garden centers, scout troops, and other civic organizations in search of community service projects.

The swift has greater mastery of the air than any other bird, but is one of the least known, as it nests inaccessibly in holes. The Author studied a colony in an Oxford tower, by substituting glass-backed nesting boxes for the ventilators in which they were nesting ; after which the birds could be watched from a few inches away, thus providing unique means of studying them. Their flight (which may last five hours), courtship and nesting behaviour were fully studied, and have been illustrated with unique photographs by electornic flash by H. N. Southern. Behaviour in the air was also observed, swifts being the only birds known to mate on the wing. They also drink, bathe and collect their food and nesting materials without alighting, and even spend the night on the wing. Swifts migrate to South Africa, but the old story that they hibernate contains some element of truth. The races of swifts are described, their birth-rate and death-rate analysed, and comparisons are made with the many tropical swifts, some of which (such as those whose nests provide 'Birds-nest soup') have habits as remarkable as those of our British bird. When first published in 1956, this book was the first full-length study of perhaps the most remarkable of all British birds, and now seventeen years later has become a classic in its field. Not only is it an invaluable text for ornithologists, but its non-technical language makes it suitable for readers with a general interest in natural history. Just below the tower where the swifts nested, Samuel Wilberforce and T. H. Huxley held their famous debate on evolution, and adaptation forms a recurrent theme in the book, its wider implications being considered in a final chapter. -- from dust jacket.

The Kyles share their knowledge and provide a peek into the secret life of these beneficial, insect-eating birds, and practical guidelines for homeowners to coexist peacefully with these remarkable birds.

Swifts live almost entirely in the air. They eat, drink, sleep, mate and gather their nesting materials on the wing, fly thousands of miles across the world, navigating their way around storms, never lighting on tree, cliff or ground, until they return home with the summer.

Now available in paperback with a new foreword by Marcia Myers Bonta, Birds of an Iowa Dooryard contains Althea Sherman's often caustic, always careful studies of the phoebes, wrens, cuckoos, rails, catbirds, owls, flickers, and many other species that inhabited her Acre of Birds in northern Iowa. Birds of an Iowa Dooryard, first published in 1952, is full of Sherman's meticulous observations of species both avian and human. Her paintings, her notebooks and publications, and her innovative chimney swift tower form a remarkably rich legacy to be valued by naturalists and researchers alike.