Every spring and fall, something remarkable happens above rooftops along the west coast. Thousands of small, dark birds materialize at dusk, circling in tightening spirals before funneling all at once into a chimney. The birds are Vaux's Swifts. The chimneys are the last stand-ins for the old-growth forests they are losing. And the people counting them — from British Columbia to Central America — are why we know what's happening to them.
Vaux's Happening is a community science project tracking one of North America's most vulnerable migratory birds across the length of the Pacific Flyway. Our goal is the conservation of Vaux’s Swifts by raising awareness of their spectacular roosting events, gathering data for population monitoring, and documenting and protecting known roosts.
140+
Roosts Documented
31 million+
Swifts Counted
19
Years of Monitoring
Vaux's Happening began in 2007, when Larry Schwitters — a retired middle school science teacher from the Seattle area — was tapped to count swifts at a chimney roost in Monroe, Washington. The goal was straightforward: document the birds before the roost disappeared and make the case for protecting it. Nineteen years later, the project has grown into one of the most extensive community science efforts focused on a single migratory species in western North America, coordinated through the Pilchuck Audubon Society with volunteer observers from British Columbia through Central America.
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