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 colorful species is projected to lose 62 percent of its current summer range by 2080, but has potential to expand, according to Audubon’s climate model. With some northward expansion in California already being documented, the model's projections of increased suitablity across the southwest may come to bear. Yet, just because an area becomes climatically suitable does not mean it can be successfully colonized. How much of the projected potential gain is realized has yet to be seen.
Yellow-orange and black, this elegant bird is a denizen of warm climates, summering in much of the southwestern United States and wintering mainly in Mexico. Known for the black face and throat plumage that makes it appear hooded, the male is much brighter than its female counterpart, who lacks the black facial feathers and has a paler yellow-green tint to her feathers. The Hooded Oriole is most common in the vicinity of water in arid lowlands, such as in riverside woods, palm groves around desert oases, along canyon streams, or in southwestern suburbs and parks. Its diet consists of insects, spiders, nectar, and fruit.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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