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.
A low-density inhabitant of desert landscapes with sparse shrubs or trees, the Bendire’s Thrasher is secretive and little studied. Within its limited range, the bird accepts a variety of habitats: cholla and yucca shrublands, Joshua tree woodlands, and even open pinyon–juniper stands. Thus it is something of a mystery why the species isn’t more widely distributed. Audubon's climate model forecasts major expansions of suitable climate space in both summer and winter, but with some geographic discordance: future climate space in summer may spread into the southeastern interior, whereas peninsular Florida could provide suitable climate space in winter.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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