A dire mystery has the Umpqua Valley Audubon Society asking the public for help: vast numbers of the migratory birds, Vaux’s Swifts, have disappeared. The hanging questions are: Why? And where have the swifts gone?

Thousands of these birds pass through Oregon every spring and late summer, to places as far south as Venezuela. Their chittering and mesmerizing aerial “dance” often draws crowds, before they dart into an old chimney or smokestack to roost for the night. Among the sites the birds use is the University of Oregon’s Agate Hall chimney .

Tracy Maxwell of the Umpqua Valley Audubon Society told KLCC that right after 2023, Vaux’s Swifts around Roseburg went from 2,500 to zero. She fears it’s part of an overall trend based on what she’s seen of migration data shared by various a

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