The likelihood of international travel may still be a long way off for most of us, with border and flight restrictions likely to last for many months, but some recent visitors to our island have just made the most amazing long distance journeys.

Swifts, swallows and house martins are summer migrants, and they have recently flown hundreds of miles from southern Africa at a cruising speed of 22mph, often covering more than 200 miles a day.

Not bad going for such small birds.

They either cross the Sahara or navigate their way along the coastline of Africa.

Once they’ve survived this challenge they begin their journey over Spain, climbing high over the Pyrenees and travelling through western France before hitting UK soil.

These little birds spend most of their lives on the wing - they catch insects in the air, and drink by swooping low over water to take sip.

Whilst swallows and house martins can be seen perching from time to time, often on overhead wires, swifts usually only ever land when they are breeding - they even sleep whilst flying (the only bird known to do this).

Flying at a high altitude of 10,000 feet (the same as a small plane) seems to help them navigate whilst they are asleep, using wind drift and automatically adjusting their flight to stay on a specific course.

Swifts have the perfect bodies for being air born for so long, with their long wings and slender bodies. Nor are they encumbered by long legs (in fact their legs are so short they can’t take off from the ground) or tail feathers, which is the best way to tell them apart from swallows.

Swallows have long tail streamers, red throats and glossy blue-black backs, and although similar in appearance to the swift they are completely unrelated. They are known as the ’bird of freedom’ because they cannot endure captivity and will only mate in the wild.

The house martin can be identified by its slightly curved tail, and by its white underbelly and rump which can just about be glimpsed as the bird flashes by in its mission to catch insects.

Swallows, swifts and house martins traditionally nested in cliffs, caves and hollow trees, but they have adapted to a more urban environment and they will make their nests under the eaves of buildings.

Their nests are carefully crafted out of mud and are cup or oval shaped, but sometimes they break apart, or sometimes a hatchling can slip over the edge.

If you find a hatchling on the floor and you can’t put it back in the nest, pop it in an empty margarine tub and place it as high up as possible (out of the reach of cats) so that the parents can continue to feed it.

You can encourage these amazing birds to come back next year by fixing a nest box or platform under the eaves of your garage or outbuilding, as high up as possible and away from tree branches to avoid predation.

And if droppings are a problem, place a plastic bag under the box or platform.

For more information about how to create swallow, swift and house martin nesting areas please look at the RSPB’s website - rspb.org.uk.

Whilst these birds are not technically endangered, their numbers have declined over the past 30 years due to a reduction in suitable nesting sites (alongside the overuse of pesticides affecting insect numbers), and so they need our help.

They will only stay with us until the autumn, and so make the most of them and enjoy their acrobatics in the air and their joyful chirruping.