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.
Fire-dependent and generally scarce, this fickle denizen of boreal and montane conifer forests is forecast to experience a dramatic northward shift in potential summer and winter ranges. While overall potential climatic space for this bird may slightly increase, climate change could push the species north out of 75 percent of its current wintering range, with a near-complete departure from the Lower 48 by 2080. However, if the species can track its favored forests, it may find a future farther north. An increase in wildfire frequency as a result of climate change could prove to be a boon to a bird that feasts on beetles in recently burned conifers.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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