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.
Our smallest diving duck, the incredibly cute little Bufflehead, nests only in tree cavities. As a result, it is missing as a breeding bird from areas north of tree line where, according to Audubon's climate model, the climate is otherwise suitable. The model shows a major decrease in available area in boreal forest of west-central Canada, currently the heart of the species’ breeding range; a lack of nesting sites may make it challenging for the Bufflehead to move into new areas farther north. Available winter area is likely to shift considerably northward by 2080, especially in the east.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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