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.
Spotting a Pomarine Jaeger gets the adrenaline going! Most birders see the species on offshore boat trips from spring through fall, but “Poms” are present in low numbers in the winter. Audubon's climate model suggests that the opportunity for winter sightings will diminish considerably in the decades ahead, with areas of suitable climate space falling by 96 percent. The occurrence of jaegers and most other seabirds is importantly determined by sea surface temperature (a strong proxy for food availability and an ocean feature already known to be affected by climate change). Pomarine Jaegers, with their strong powers of dispersal, may be able to mediate climatic shifts more easily than some other seabird species.
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.
