944 Fifth Avenue Chimney Swift Roost

By D. Bruce YoltonOther Birds

I was afraid that a new pipe on top of the Chimney Swift chimney on 944 Fifth Avenue meant the roost was sealed off and made the mistake of not waiting long enough to confirm that the roost was inactive last week. Luckily, Ben Cacace corrected me. At his suggestion, I made a video at 120 frames/second so the Chimney Swifts could be counted going to roost.

The schedule of the evening was:

  • 6:44 pm, Sunset
  • 6:45 pm, Chimney Swifts start circling the roost
  • 6:58 pm, First Chimney Swift enters the roost
  • 7:10 pm, Last Chimney Swift enters the roost

The swifts entered the chimney slowly, but then had one major burst around 7:01 pm followed by a much smaller burst a few minutes later.

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