Alpine Swift Nest 1, Sumiswald Church Tower Live Cam

This camera watches an Alpine swift nest under the roof of the church tower in Sumiswald, a village in the Emmental in the canton of Bern. The round nest of feathers and plant fibres sits on a wooden board, next to a heap of old nest material.

The church was built by the Teutonic Order between 1510 and 1512 and has a saddleback tower. Alpine swifts, the largest swifts in Europe, winter in Africa and return in spring to breed in colonies in towers and tall buildings. They glue their nests together from feathers and plant matter with saliva.

This is the first of two cameras in the tower and sits close to its nest, so the nest and the worn boards around it fill most of the frame. At night the picture is in black and white, with a date and time stamp along the top.