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.
By 2080, this symbol of wild, open spaces is projected to lose 41 percent of breeding range and 16 percent of non-breeding range, according to Audubon’s climate model. Whether the raptor, which has 70-mile territories, will keep pace with a shrinking breeding range is uncertain, as is how changes in prey abundance will adjust to the shifting climate.
This striking, dark-brown raptor occupies a wide range of habitats in western North America, from the Alaskan tundra south to the Arizona desert, and it also occurs locally in eastern North America. It is also found in Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. It prefers grassland, sagebrush flats, deserts, and other open habitats, where it hunts for small mammals like rabbits, squirrels, and prairie dogs. The Golden Eagle often nests on high cliffs, where it raises one brood a year. Following the breeding season, many northern-dwelling individuals migrate to warmer regions, some journeying as far south as Mexico. A typically solitary bird, it nonetheless will often maintain its pair bonds year-round.
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.
