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.
Throughout its annual cycle, the svelte and smart-looking American Pipit is closely linked with open habitats: tundra, mudflats, ocean beaches, and agricultural fields. Audubon's climate model shows overall expansion in winter of suitable climate space, with most of the current range remaining stable. In summer, expansion is likewise forecast, but most of the present range is not stable—a result with particular relevance to the southernmost populations of American Pipits. These southern pipits, breeding above tree line, may decline or disappear as their alpine tundra breeding habitat dwindles. In this scenario, genetic and ecological diversity represented by the southernmost pipits would be lost.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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