Swift Nest Box at Cēsis Castle

A Window into the Swift's Hidden World

This camera reaches inside a nest box for the common swift (Apus apus), a species famous for spending nearly its entire life on the wing. Tucked into a wooden cavity, the lens captures the lined hollow, scattered nesting material and a single bright entrance hole that connects the box to the open sky beyond.

Cēsis Castle and the Latvian Fund for Nature

The nest box sits within the grounds of Cēsis Castle, a medieval stronghold whose ruins have sheltered nesting swifts for centuries, going back to its days as a Teutonic Order seat. The stream is operated by the Latvian Fund for Nature (Latvijas Dabas fonds) as part of its conservation broadcasts.

Behaviour to Watch For

Swifts pair for life and may return to the same site for many years. Viewers can follow egg-laying, incubation and the careful feeding of one to three chicks, all within a cramped cavity that the adults defend with their distinctive screaming calls.

A Migratory Visitor

Common swifts spend only a few months in Latvia each summer before departing for wintering grounds in Africa. That short, intense breeding window makes this nest cam a privileged seat for one of Europe's great aerial migrants.