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.
One of the tiniest North American birds, the Golden-crowned Kinglet is also one of the most voracious devourers of insects. Even in the north woods of Maine, overwintering Golden-crowns survive on a diet of live insects. Eastern populations are more strongly migratory than their western counterparts. Audubon’s climate model forecasts overall northward drift of suitable climate space in both summer and winter, with an overall increase at both times of year in the total region of favored climate. However, of concern is the fact that only 31% of the current summer climate space is predicted to be available by 2080. The realized future range of this kinglet may well depend on two factors: extensive conifer forests for breeders and plentiful small arthropods in winter.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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