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.
Although unfamiliar to many birders, the diminutive Dovekie is actually quite common. Immense breeding colonies are concentrated on remote northern islands and seacoasts, and most Dovekies winter well offshore and fairly far north. Audubon's climate model, restricted to the species’ non-breeding distribution, anticipates a near doubling of climatically suitable regions, but only 45% of the current range is considered stable. Some of these newly created regions are unlikely to be used, however, as pelagic prey species for Dovekies may not be available in the new climate space at sea. Even in suitable offshore wintering grounds, depletion of fisheries is—and is projected to continue to be—a threat to the Dovekie.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
It's easier than you think to make a difference. Become an Audubon member today to help birds facing climate change.
