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.
Two species of dowitchers—the Short-billed and the Long-billed—are notoriously similar in appearance. However, their favored microhabitats in winter usually differ, with Short-bills occupying saltwater habitats near the coast, and Long-bills in freshwater habitats often well inland. Audubon's climate model shows a major shift of suitable winter climate for Short-billed Dowitchers, especially along the Gulf Coast, with only 13 percent of the current range remaining stable. At the same time, the species may expand inland in the Southwest, an area already occupied by wintering Long-billed Dowitchers. If wintering Short-bills can adapt to the region, it will be interesting to see how the two species interact.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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