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.
For most North American birders, this owl is a rare wintertime treat: scarce most years even in the northern tier of U.S. states, absent some winters, and a bit more common once a decade or so. It’s all about food availability: when the birds’ rodent prey base either crashes or is in super-abundance, Snowy Owls push south in winter. Audubon's climate model suggests that in the future such southward excursions may become less extensive. By century’s end, climatically suitable areas for wintering Snowy Owls may have pushed north from southern Canada well into the Arctic. The big question for these owls isn’t climate per se—these big predators can withstand harsh weather—but, rather, the indirect effect of climate on the owls’ prey base.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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