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.
In much of its range, this hardy chickadee is tightly associated with mountain conifer forests. Even in the dead of winter, Mountain Chickadees are common right up to tree line. Nevertheless, the species is capable of dispersal, and a few wander far from the mountains each winter. An intriguing aspect of Audubon's climate model projection is the existence of suitable climate space in the Arctic—in winter, but not in summer. Given the species’ only modest proclivity to disperse, a major range expansion is unlikely. But increased frequency of winter sightings well out of range may be in the offing. Within the core range actually occupied by the species today, suitable climate space is likely to dwindle.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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