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 Mountain Plover’s name is a misnomer because it breeds on shortgrass prairies and winters in lowland agricultural districts. Fire suppression and cattle grazing have already taken a toll on this imperiled species’ prairie habitat. More recently, climate change has been invoked as a factor contributing to declining habitat, and Audubon's climate model corroborates that hypothesis by projecting that the species will lose over three-quarters of current winter and summer ranges. And although areas of acceptable wintering climate are forecast to expand somewhat, they are in regions facing expanding human populations and/or changing land-use practices.
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.
