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 certain swamps of the southeastern U.S., it’s possible to find flocks of hundreds and even thousands of Rusty Blackbirds gathering to roost on a winter’s evening. But this used to be a more widespread phenomenon in the region. The numbers of this bog-nesting species have been declining precipitously over the last couple decades. Audubon’s climate model predicts adding another challenge to the ones this species already faces—a shifting climate space, especially in the summer. A significant northward shift in climate suitable area is forecast, and if the bird and its required boreal bog habitats can follow that space remains to be seen.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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