Thousands of baby swifts scorched by heatwave in Spain

The tiny fledglings are “being cooked” as temperatures soar relentlessly across Spain

“You would walk down the street and there would be 100 chicks, lying at the foot of a building, some dying and some barely alive,” described biologist Elena Moreno Portillo of Ecourbe, a Seville-based conservation association.

“Our buildings are usually made of concrete or metal plates and these get very hot. So it becomes an oven and the chicks, who can’t fly yet, rush out because they can’t stand the temperature inside,” Ms Moreno Portillo said. “They’re literally being cooked.”

According to meteorologists, summer is now arriving in Spain up to 40 days earlier, putting the survival of the swift species in jeopardy.

“By mid-July, it is likely that many of these birds would have been able to fly. But they got caught in the heatwave and didn’t have time,” Ms Moreno Portillo concluded.

Image: Ecourbe