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.
Although they overlap on the breeding grounds with other similar thrush species, Veeries tend to favor wetter woods. In most of their range, they occur in relatively low-elevation settings and in broadleaf forests, although there are exceptions to that rule in the Rockies. Audubon's climate model forecasts an 89 percent loss in current summer range by 2080, with substantial withdrawal from the current range and movement northward into an area generally characterized at the present time by conifer, not broadleaf, forests. If the Veery is to make the move to more northerly climes, it will likely require replacement of today’s conifer forests by invading broadleaf tree communities from the south.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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