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.
Recent Red Knot population declines have garnered much attention. A key concern has to do what’s happening on spring migration: migrating Red Knots stage in huge numbers along the Mid-Atlantic coast where they feast on horseshoe crab eggs, a food resource that has been severely depleted by overharvest. Audubon’s climate model brings attention to a new threat: loss of wintering range. The model projects a shift away from over three-quarters of wintering areas with suitable climate in the U.S. and Canada, with particularly sharp losses in Florida. Most Red Knots winter along or near the shore, so rising sea levels will play a key role in determining the Red Knot’s future whereabouts in winter.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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