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.
Year-round this sleek thrush favors conifer-dominated landscapes. Breeders inhabit the mountains inland, but extend to sea level with conifer forests. In winter, there is a lot of population movement, but typically within the West, with many birds finding their way to juniper woodlands in canyons and on the plains. Audubon's climate model projects a dramatic 91 percent loss of current summer range by 2080. While severe, the losses may turn out to be less than predicted, because the model over-predicts the occurrence of the Townsend’s Solitaire at the present time, placing it well to the east of where it actually occurs. Even so, some loss of suitable climate space appears to be in store within the range occupied today.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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