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 sapsucker of the Intermountain West breeds in aspen forests in the mountains of the Great Basin and southern and central Rockies. In winter Red-naped Sapsuckers disperse to lower-elevation groves in the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico. Audubon's climate model forecasts strong contraction and shifting of climate-suitable range in summer, but a near tripling of workable climate space in winter. In cases like this—a more favorable prediction for winter than summer—it is challenging to forecast overall population health. The species may flourish in winter, only to be held in check by increasing limits on population growth on the breeding grounds
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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