Quoted: “It’s a puzzling, probably multi-faceted problem, and getting a handle on it is tough, but it’s not just chimney swifts that are declining,” said Anna Pidgeon, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor in forest and wildlife ecology.
“Birds that depend on insects solely for their food for the whole annual cycle are declining as a group. Swifts are not maybe a flagship, but an important one,” Pidgeon said. “They’re pretty conspicuous, and they’re conspicuous in their decline as well.”