Chimney Swift Migration Is Full of Mysteries—but Rehabbed Birds Could Spill the Species’ Secrets

At dusk in August 2025, a group gathered in the parking lot of Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Connecticut to watch the sky fill with a flurry of birds, their cigar-shaped bodies dipping and swirling around the school’s chimney. Sunny Kellner, wildlife rehabilitation manager for the Sharon Audubon Center, held a Chimney Swift in her gloved hand, then released it to join the living vortex.