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.
The Common Goldeneye is, like the closely related Bufflehead, exclusively a cavity nester, so it’s no surprise that this species breeds only in wooded places. It’s apparent that—along with the boreal forest—the Common Goldeneye may face a potentially strong shift in climate space as is forecast by Audubon’s climate model. In summer, 39% of the current core range will remain stable by 2080, and a large decline in the boreal forest could be devastating for the species. The species’ winter prospects are similar to most other ducks’: a fair shift in range and an increase in potential areas with suitable climate conditions.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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