A retired motorcycle importer who once soared with swifts during a paragliding championship is now leading a national effort to protect these legendary birds as they return to Jerusalem’s historic walls.
In 1999, Amnonn Hahn was competing in a national paragliding championship when he followed a group of swifts to locate a thermal—a rising column of warm air. He ended up flying silently alongside the birds for 25 minutes, reaching an altitude of over 6,500 feet. "It was like magic," Hahn recalls. The experience completely changed him. After retiring from his business, Hahn dedicated his life to conserving the common swift.
Every spring, swifts migrate about 2,800 miles from East Africa to nest in the nooks and crannies of Jerusalem's Western Wall. These scythe-winged birds have raised their young in the ancient stones for two millennia. For local residents and worshippers, the birds’ arrival is a deeply spiritual event, with their distinctive high-pitched calls mixing with prayers at the holy site.
Because swifts fly freely across contested borders, artists and activists have long used them as a symbol of peace in the Old City. The birds nest not only at the Western Wall but also at other historic religious sites, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
However, the swifts face a severe crisis. Across Europe and Israel, their populations are declining rapidly. Scientists attribute this decline to declining insect populations, erratic weather linked to climate change, and a lack of nesting sites. Modern glass skyscrapers and neat building designs leave no room for the birds, forcing them into tight, dangerous spaces.
As a result, young nestlings frequently fall out of their nests. Hahn, now 72, spends much of the nesting season rushing to rescue these fallen birds. To solve the crisis, he began placing rescued fledglings into larger nesting boxes he built around his home. To his amazement, the resident swifts readily fostered the newcomers, feeding them even before their own chicks.
Hahn's conservation journey started in 2005 when his daughter’s school was renovated, blocking the swifts' usual nesting holes. He sourced wooden ammunition boxes from the Israeli army, converted them into nests, and installed them on the school's outer walls. Since then, he has worked with city councils across Israel. At a kindergarten in Tel Aviv, he helped set up 222 nesting boxes equipped with cameras.
Once young swifts leave their nests, they live almost entirely on the wing, not landing again for the first two or three years of their lives. They eat, sleep, and even wash themselves while flying. While recent military conflicts and missile strikes in Tel Aviv have driven some nesting pairs away, Hahn remains determined to ensure that these birds will always have a safe place to return to each year.