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 sassy, showy bird is basically the Texas counterpart of the more widespread Red-bellied Woodpecker. The Golden-front occurs in drier, thornier, and less densely forested districts than those of its eastern congener. Where the two species overlap, they hybridize. The model is a mixed bag of future prospects for the Golden-fronted Woodpecker: substantial movement northward and more climatically suitable area overall in summer versus loss in winter of currently suitable climate space. Of special concern is the fact that only 38% of both summer and winter regions is forecast to remain stable. For non-migratory species, the decoupling of summer and winter areas is usually bad news. Unless this sedentary woodpecker suddenly becomes migratory, it may be headed for some amount of population decline.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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