Each map is a visual guide to where a particular bird species may find the climate conditions it needs to survive in the future. We call this the bird’s “climatic range.”
The colors indicate the season in which the bird may find suitable conditions— blue for winter, yellow for summer (breeding), and green for where they overlap (indicating their presence year-round).
The darker the shaded area, the more likely it is the bird species will find suitable climate conditions to survive there.
The outline of the approximate current range for each season remains fixed in each frame, allowing you to compare how the range will expand, contract, or shift in the future.
The first frame of the animation shows where the bird can find a suitable climate today (based on data from 2000). The next three frames predict where this bird’s suitable climate may shift in the future—one frame each for 2020, 2050, and 2080.
You can play or pause the animation with the orange button in the lower left, or select an individual frame to study by clicking on its year.
This sleek duck of northeastern forest lakes and coastal marshes has suffered a long, persistent decline for over a century—largely owing to over-hunting as well as hybridization with its close relative, the Mallard, which has spread into the Northeast following the clearing of forest, and with the decline of the American Black Duck has replaced it in many locations. Audubon's climate model shows a future for the species that at first glance doesn’t seem too bad, with areas of potentially suitable climate increasing slightly in the summer season and more so in winter. However, much of the potential new area opens up in the far west, where the American Black Duck does not occur. It’s doubtful that the species would make that westward leap, especially if over-harvesting and pressure from the Mallard continue, so prospects for this species may be worse than predicted.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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