{"id":6300,"date":"2026-07-22T14:10:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=6300"},"modified":"2026-07-22T14:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:10:30","slug":"greetings-from-jerusalem-whose-holy-sites-host-some-of-the-oldest-colonies-of-nesting-swifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=6300","title":{"rendered":"Greetings from Jerusalem, whose holy sites host some of the oldest colonies of nesting swifts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n<\/div>\n\n \n Ruth Sherlock\/NPR\n \n <\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This spring, I was in Jerusalem reporting a story on the common swift. These scythe-winged birds have nested in the cracks of the Western Wall and other holy sites here for thousands of years. <\/p>

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The faithful have adapted to the swifts’ presence, prayers mixing with the bird calls. And the swifts have adapted to live with humans, raising their young in the nooks and crannies of buildings and other structures. <\/p>

Every year, they migrate thousands of miles to return to the same city, town or village, where they reunite with their lifelong mates to nest. At the Western Wall, there were dozens of nests this year. <\/p>

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Since seeing and hearing the birds there, I notice them everywhere. And I also notice their absence \u2014 the empty, silent skies where they should be. In Israel this year, Iranian missile strikes disrupted nesting sites.\u00a0And common swifts are in decline across Europe. Modern building techniques \u2014 smooth glass skyscrapers and sealed homes \u2014 are leaving them without places to nest.<\/p>

Helping them is simple \u2014 a wooden box, a hollow brick. When they do nest, the birds then fly in groups at top speeds, round and around buildings, making calls so high-pitched, loud and distinctive, the behavior is known as a “screaming party.” They do it for many reasons \u2014 but one is to encourage their fledglings to take flight. Watching\u00a0them inspired in me a soaring joy.\u00a0<\/p>

Read more U.S. and Iranian attacks continue as tensions mount on a key waterway in the Red Sea<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The scythe-winged birds have nested in the cracks of the Western Wall and other holy sites in Jerusalem for thousands of years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1289,27,1329],"class_list":["post-6300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-birds","tag-israel","tag-western-wall"],"yoast_head":"\nGreetings from Jerusalem, whose holy sites host some of the oldest colonies of nesting swifts - Best USA Movers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=6300\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Greetings from Jerusalem, whose holy sites host some of the oldest colonies of nesting swifts - 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