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.
It is a great day, indeed, when a flock of Evening Grosbeaks descends on the feeder of an unsuspecting birdwatcher. But their ravenous appetite for sunflower seeds quickly gets expensive for the host. The Evening Grosbeak will have to be able to adapt to breeding in new areas if the Audubon climate model’s projection is correct: only two percent of the current summer range is thought to be stable. The decrease in total available climate space is just over one-quarter (29 percent). The winter climate space is predicted to stay mostly the same size but shift by about 58 percent, predominately north and upslope. This is another highly irruptive and unpredictable species, so further data will help strengthen model predictions.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
It's easier than you think to make a difference. Become an Audubon member today to help birds facing climate change.
