Making Buildings Hospitable with Swifts

• Main Author: d'Hoop, Ariane
• Other Authors: USL-B - Centre de recherches et d'interventions sociologiques (CESIR)
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: urban ecology; Species exinction; habitat; multispecies studies; bird; Apus apus
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2078.3/238707

Each year, between 1200 and 2400 pairs of black swifts (Apus apus) land in Brussels’ districts. Through voids and cracks in buildings, they reach cavities and holes in direct flight; this makes it harder for humans to notice these birds who mostly live flying, high up in the sky. Swifts have their own ways of inhabiting these places. They circumscribe suitable nesting sites by doing "sound roundsâ€. They weave nests with all kinds of materials: feathers, grass, leaves, butterflies, pieces of plastic, etc. They are highly philopatric: they always return to the same breeding area. Yet, in densely urban neighbourhoods, the dynamics of building construction, renovation and isolation devastate those discreet homes and hence contribute to the disappearance of their inhabitants. For over two decades there has been a growing concern over the fate of the Brussels’ swifts and their living places. This paper explores urban sites where swifts’ homes have become inhospitable to them. It articulates ethnographic research with scientists and amateurs activists who experiment with more caring forms of cohabitation with these fascinating birds. How these multispecies places are re-constituted to address species loss? In the wake of Extinction Studies (van Dooren, Flight Ways) and Philosophical Ethology (Despret, Habiter en oiseau), the descriptions unfold the dilemmas and compromises, modes of attentiveness and responsiveness that are emerging in these sensory worlds. These ethical issues call to critically rethink the scientific notion of “habitatâ€, that can no longer be limited to the physical parameters and biological components of a location.