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 Red-breasted Merganser is circumpolar in distribution—that is, it’s found across Eurasia as well as in North America, all the way around the pole. Audubon's climate model predicts that more than three-quarters of its North American summer range is projected to shift north by 2080. Large numbers of the species winter offshore, complicating interpretation of the winter range projection, which on its face shows stable numbers and—not surprisingly—a northward shift in range. Large winter concentrations will likely remain on the Great Lakes.
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.
