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.
Bizarrely beautiful may best describe the surprisingly camouflaged plumage of a male Montezuma Quail. A complete loss of current winter range looks potentially disastrous for a non-migratory species, but perhaps 85 percent of Montezuma Quail live in Mexico. Its U.S. summer range is projected to be largely secure and experience a potentially significant increase. These quail live in the thick, grassy understory of oak woodlands, a habitat maintained by frequent low-intensity fire and easily disturbed by overgrazing. If the oak forests can persist—something alluded to by the stable summer climate—and we can maintain adequate management practices for the understory, this species may continue to inhabit much of its current range.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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