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.
This owl of open country occurs widely in North America, South America, Eurasia, and Africa. The species’ status varies tremendously from region to region: populations are endangered in some places, flourishing in others. Audubon's climate model shows a loss by nearly three-quarters of climatically suitable space in winter. Some regional populations seem likely to dwindle or disappear altogether. For others to flourish, adapting to human-modified landscapes will be essential. It is encouraging that some Short-eared Owls have exploited new habitats like reclaimed strip mines, but discouraging that so many have withdrawn from increasingly disturbed habitats in marshes.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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