BirdLife Cyprus has called on the public, and children in particular, to take note of and record the arrival of swallows in their neighbourhood and help protect the birds.

Spring Alive is a BirdLife International educational conservation initiative organised by OTOP (BirdLife in Poland) that encourages children around the world to take action for the conservation of the migratory birds they learn about.

Intimately associated with humans, swallows are a species that anyone, almost anywhere can help with, through the Spring Alive 2016 season theme ‘Swallows of my Neighbourhood’.

According to an announcement: “One of the most familiar birds in the world is declining, but rather than being concerned let’s celebrate the swallows of our neighbourhood, because they give a great start for young people to care about conservation”.

Children and adults can participate in the ‘Swallows of my Neighbourhood’ effort by listening out for the birds’ arrival.

Visit www.springalive.net/world/springalive/swallow_migrations to hear their calls.

They can also monitor their neighbourhood and note how many swallows and nests they see and even adopt a nest, without disturbing the birds, and note the key dates of arrival, egg-laying, hatching and fledging to be compared to next year.

Participants can, in addition, stop people from destroying swallow nests. Even if their droppings make a mess why not just put up a board to catch the droppings instead?

Thos of all ages taking part can also learn the difference between Barn Swallows and House Martins and the best ways to look after each species.

Another suggestion from BirdLife is for people to plant lots of flowers to make their garden insect-friendly – so the birds have lots to eat when they arrive.

The organisation also listed ‘10 reasons for your child to celebrate spring with Spring Alive’. Visit http://www.birdlife.org/europe-and-central-asia/news/10-reasons-your-child-celebrate-spring-spring-alive to learn more.

“Swallows are beginning to start their spring migration, where they travel hundreds of kilometres a day at a speed of over 30km/h – pretty tiring! These small birds are vulnerable to starvation, exhaustion and storms – so when they arrive in Cyprus they will need all the help they can get to recover!,” BirdLife Cyprus notes.

Swallows are small, beautiful birds with dark, glossy-blue backs, red throats, pale underparts and long tail streamers – so-called ‘swallow tail’. They are extremely agile in flight and spend most of their time flittering around us catching insects.

Barn Swallows used to breed in caves, but now almost always nest in the eaves of buildings – such as farm barns (hence the name) and even in busy restaurants – meaning that the bird is one of the most familiar bird species in the world.

Nevertheless, they have marked population declines in some areas which means their global population trend is listed as ‘decreasing’ – so in the future, this common species might not be so common.