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 otherwise yellow male Wilson’s Warbler is easily recognized by its shiny black cap. It is a widespread species and one of very few warblers that could be seen almost anywhere in North America. For nesting, it favors moist thickets, such as streamside willows. Audubon's climate model projects a 76 percent loss of current summer range by 2080, showing the species retreating north and up in elevation as the climate warms. This may cause the species to disappear as a breeder in much of the western U.S. Most Wilson’s Warblers winter in Middle America, so the projected decrease in available climate-space is not entirely alarming.
Explore more birds threatened by climate change around the country.
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