Housing may be at a premium these days, but some very special visitors to the Isle of Dogs are winging their way to a free home.

Residents on the Kingsbridge estate earned their wings by asking their landlord Island Homes to fit new bird boxes in the eaves of their buildings. The eight boxes will provide much-needed nesting space for endangered house martins and swifts.

Pam Cole, who lives on the estate, said: “We are pleased to have these nesting boxes to encourage the house martins to nest on the estate.

“Hopefully, the numbers will increase, as they are now an endangered species.”

Fiona Crook, a spokesperson for Island Homes, said the boxes had been ‘swift’ to install. “We’ve already got scaffolding up on that building,” she said, “so we were able to take care of the request within a couple of weeks.”

House martins and swifts both have ‘amber’ conservation status in the UK as their breeding population is declining.