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 colorful and elegant species, formerly called Louisiana Heron, is common in marshes along much of the East Coast of the U.S. Audubon's climate model predicts a 54 percent loss of current summer range by 2080, with some potential expansion well into the interior, particularly in the Mississippi Valley, an area well known for hosting wandering Tricolored Herons in late summer. Small numbers already nest in places like Oklahoma and Kansas, giving credence to the projection.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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