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 hardy Purple Sandpiper was until recently limited in winter mainly to the rough, rocky coasts of New England and Atlantic Canada. In the past few decades, though, the species has spread southward along the Atlantic coast—in part, due to the proliferation of new jetties. Audubon's climate model shows continued expansion of the wintering grounds, but not southward. Instead, the species is forecast to spread northward and inland in winter—not only in the Northeast, where it is currently centered, but also in the Northwest, but with over 50 percent loss in current climate space. Available habitat, in the form of sea rocks, abounds on the coasts of Alaska and southwestern Canada; if Purple Sandpipers colonize these regions, they may well persist.
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.
