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.
The Blue-winged Teal, unlike many other migratory waterfowl, is much less adapted to withstanding cold temperatures, and most winter in Mexico and Central America. Audubon’s climate model projects a significant shift in summer range by 2080, with only 39% of the present remaining stable and nearly completely away from the current core of its range. As with many other species, the summer climate space of this elegant little duck will likely move northward. While the suitable areas for wintering in the United States may increase, it remains to be seen if this species will be able to follows the shifting climate suitable areas in the summer.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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