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 Northern Gannet is a mainly pelagic species. While it may be seen from land, it only goes there to breed or when beached and ailing. Audubon's climate model projections should then be used with caution, as most of the area covered by this species is beyond the shores of the analysis. Two recent phenomena give us a clue as to what the world’s changing climate has in store for the species. First, a Northern Gannet was seen for the first time in the Pacific Ocean in 2013. Some speculate that disappearance of Arctic sea ice is responsible, and that the species may even attempt to colonize the northern Pacific. Second, Atlantic Puffins have recently been having trouble at breeding colonies at the southern edge of their range. Gannets and Puffins have similar colony distributions further north and the Gannet may yet face the similar difficulties.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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