Climate-Threatened Birds

After Binging in Colombia, Thrushes Can Fly Non-Stop to Canada in Mere Days
July 5, 2017 — Taking multiple refueling breaks helps some birds fare better during migration. But for Gray-cheeked thrushes, a two-week binge session in Colombia can be all they need to reach North America.
American Kestrel chicks. Amber Eschenbauch

Tracking Kestrels One Feather at a Time
August 1, 2016 — Researchers suspect that plucked DNA can provide answers to where climate-threatened American Kestrels are going.
A breeding pair of Mountain Bluebirds at a nest box. Danita Delimont/Alamy

Who Wins in a Fight Between Bluebirds and Swallows?
June 23, 2016 — Mountain Bluebirds could have a hard time defending their homes if climate change speeds up the arrival of their nest rivals.
Eastern Bluebirds are one of three species being studied for Audubon's pilot citizen science project. Danny Brown/Audubon Photography Awards

Here’s Your First Look at Audubon’s New Birds and Climate Project
June 22, 2016 — Climate Watch is getting volunteers across the country to admire bluebirds (for science).
Kim Brand of Forsyth Audubon and Audubon North Carolina holds a Wood Thrush while visiting Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize. Andrea Desky/Climate Listening Project

Can A Little Bird's Big-Screen Debut Help Tackle Climate Change?
May 18, 2016 — A new video on Wood Thrush migration rallies activists in North Carolina and Belize.
A Red Knot nesting on a coastal gravel spit in Chukotka, Russia. Gerrit Vyn/Nature Picture Library

The Arctic Is Shrinking, and so Are Its Birds
May 17, 2016 — In West Africa, Red Knots are 15 percent smaller today than they were 30 years ago—and climate change may be to blame.
A knot at Delaware Bay. More than half the Atlantic Flyway’s Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones, and Semipalmated Sandpipers gorge on horseshoe crab eggs here during migration. Kevin Flemming

Red Knots Are Battling Climate Change—On Both Ends of the Earth
April 26, 2016 — The tiny, threatened bird is an omen for how devastating ocean acidification can be.
The Orchard Oriole is losing prime habitat in the south, but gaining more up north. Hazel Erikson/Audubon Photography Awards

Birds in North America and Europe Are Quickly Packing Their Bags—Here's Why
April 1, 2016 — Decades of data show that climate change is manipulating the way species move across continents.
Bryand photographed this Great Gray Owl amid falling snow in the Sax Zim Bog of northern Minnesota, a habitat rich with wildlife such as owls, warblers, bobcats, and wildflowers. Monica Bryand

How Birding Can Lead To Climate Action
March 18, 2016 — Monica Bryand uses her kayak and camera to explore the climate-threatened birds of Minnesota and share this issue with new audiences.
A remote motion-triggered camera recorded the hatching and growth of these two Gyrfalcon nestlings. Cameras have been set up in 13 different nests, and have captured more than 750,000 photographs for biologist Bryce Robinson to analyze. Gerrit Vyn

What One Magnificent Predator Can Show Us About the Arctic's Future
December 31, 2015 — Scientists are scaling the cliffs of Alaska's Seward Peninsula to stop the mighty Gyrfalcon from losing more ground to climate change.