Information culled from the annual Christmas Bird Count in the Western Hemisphere shows that more than half of the bird species surveyed will lose half of their climate range by 2080 if global warming continues at its current pace.
The Christmas Bird Count is an annual event that brings together over 70,000 bird enthusiasts across over 2,400 locations in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada.
Held since 1900, it's on its 115th run this year, starting Dec. 14, 2014, and ending Jan. 5, 2015. More than just a gathering of bird watchers, the Christmas Bird Count is essential because it provides a ton of information for the National Audubon Society.
Thanks to this, the organization was able to release the Audubon Birds and Climate Report. It's a comprehensive study predicting the effects of climate change on the ranges of 588 birds in North America. Aside from three decades of data collected from the Christmas Bird Count, the report also used the North American Breeding Bird Survey to define climatic suitability for every bird species.
Scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions were then utilized to map out ideal climatic ranges for birds in the future as the climate continues to change. The maps work as a guide to how current ranges for birds will shift, contract or expand by 2020, 2050 and 2080.
Of the 588 bird species studied for the report, over half of them are likely to face difficulty, with models indicating 314 will lose over 50 percent of the climatic range they currently have by 2080.
And out of these 314 species, 126 have been classified to be climate endangered and are likely to lose over 50 percent of the climatic range they have right now by 2050.
The remaining 188 bird species are designated as climate threatened, expected to lose over 50 percent of current climatic range by 2080 should global warming persist at the current rate.
Climatic range refers to climate conditions a bird would need to survive in a certain time period. Using the common loon as an example, the report estimates that by 2050 the bird's climatic winter range will decline by 62 percent, meaning ideal conditions for it to survive during winter will be cut back by as much. The report also showed that the common loon will be moving its breeding range farther north, completely disappearing in the summer from Minnesota by 2080.
Some of the other birds at risk in North America include the bald eagle, Allen's hummingbird, burrowing owl, tundra swan, hooded oriole, osprey, piping plover, white-throated sparrow, spotted owl, rufous hummingbird, golden eagle, Mississippi kite, northern shoveler, cerulean warbler and brown pelican.
