Please feel free to forward this on to others in your network that may be
interested.

I am amazed and very appreciative of the efforts put forth so far in this
project to document where Black Swifts are nesting in the Pacific Northwest. We
are probably up to a dozen waterfalls in Oregon and Washington right now where
birds have been seen RIGHT AT or GOING INTO the falls. At several of the
falls, specific ledges/crevices have been identified that the birds have been
seen flying to. Some people have been able to get right below or even behind
falls and see the birds fly through the mist of the water into the cliff face.

Probably the three most salient observations so far:

1. The plunge type falls appear to be the best. These are falls where there
is a straight vertical drop of a column of water off a cliff face. Often
times there will be space between parts of the waterfall and the cliff face, and
if ledges/crevices are available, thats where they will likely be nesting,
behind the falling water. However, its not always that simple....many waterfalls
are a combination of multiple types (e.g., cascades where the cliff face is
not vertical but sloped and the water tumbles over the rocks, or slides where
the water just runs down the rock). Some falls can be primarily a cascade or
slide, but have PORTIONS where there is a small plunge and some recessed ledges
and we have seen birds in these situations. There also have been one or two
where there is a small trickle of water or seep off to the side of the main
falls, but it is very moist and perhaps moss covered and most importantly has
suitable ledge/crevice sites for nesting. So bottom line is at first glance a
falls might not look real good for them, but it is important to assess whether
PARTS of the falls might provide sutiable nesting habitat even though the rest
of the falls seems unsuitable.

2. It is usually right near dark, often after 9:00pm, that they go to the
falls. Birds may be flying above the falls earlier in the evening, and in fact
you may go there during the day and find them flying above the falls. But,
the most reliable time to get a count of birds likely nesting at the falls is
right before dark. There have been some instances where the birds didn't even
appear till after 9:00pm, so the take home message is if the falls looks good
for them, don't give up early, and IF POSSIBLE (don't risk your safety) stay
till you can't really see birds to id them.

3. To actually see the birds go into the falls/cliff, you need to be close
to the falls and often the best place is below looking up. If you are some
distance away and perhaps looking into or down on the cliff face, when light
begins to diminish you are looking into a dark background and you basically lose
them from visibility once they go down below the horizon of the sky. Having
said that, many (most?) of the falls don't provide the opportunity to get below
them and look up, so getting a count of birds in the sky above the falls is
just perfect. Based on what we have observed so far, if there are Black Swifts
flying above a waterfalls after 8:30 or so in the evening, then they are
almost certainly nesting at that falls. And thats good enough.

So far, about 50 waterfalls in OR and WA have volunteers assigned to them,
and many of these haven't had their first visit yet. In southeast Alaska, the
USFS is visiting another 6-8 waterfalls. Additionally, I suspect some of the
falls, where birds were not detected on the first visit may turn up birds on
the second due to any number of reasons (e.g., couldn't stay as late on first
visit, just happened to miss seeing them, maybe didn't have the search image
down yet, etc.).

There are still many falls available, including some I indicated as high
priority. So, if interested let me know.

I greatly appreciate everyones efforts on this. In the end, we should have a
pretty good list of sites important for the conservation of Balck Swifts in
the Pacific Northwest.

Bob Altman
American Bird Conservancy
Northern Pacific Rainforest BCR Coordinator
311 NE Mistletoe
Corvallis, OR 97330
phone/fax - 541 745-5339
baltman at abcbirds.org
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