North Tawton resident Sarah Jordan has established an initiative to save UK birds which are now struggling to find appropriate places to nest.

Mrs Jordan is set to launch Act Swiftly within the next few weeks which will provide West Devon residents with bird boxes especially for swifts and swallows which have been on the Birds of Conservation Concern Red List since 2021, meaning that conservationists are concerned these bird species are in critical decline.

She said: ‘These birds will be flying in pretty soon and they have nowhere to go. In fact, there’s hardly any that come now but the very few that do have nowhere to go because they haven’t got the openings at the top of houses anymore. Everything’s PVC; PVC windows, PVC guttering, PVC fascia boards, so there is nowhere for them to go anymore. and that’s why there’s this red alert. They are on the decline.

‘It’s about doing what you can to re-educate people. It’s got to be done as many birds are on the red list now.’

Swifts and swallows, Mrs Jordan explained, often build their nests in the eaves of buildings or within small gaps in walls but modern houses are less likely to have such natural crevices for these birds to make their nests. House martins build their own nests out of mud and saliva but the use of plastic as a building material means the mud and saliva is less likely to adhere properly.

Though there is a push towards leaving spaces in new builds for swifts and swallows, Mrs Jordan believes more should be done.

‘The bird population has more than halved in my lifetime,’ she added.

Mrs Jordan conceived of Act Swiftly to commemorate her husband Chris, a concerned ecologist and co-opted member of North Tawton Town Council, who passed away in 2021 from covid.