How Climate Change Will Affect Birds in Alabama
Vulnerable Birds in Alabama
Highly and moderately vulnerable birds may lose more than half of their current range—the geographic area where they live—as they are forced to search for suitable habitat and climate conditions elsewhere.
Alabama
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Below, find out which of the birds that nest or spend the winter in your area are most vulnerable across their entire range. Some birds may lose range outside of your state, making the protection of their current habitat in your area even more important.
How will the Northern Flicker's range be affected in Alabama?
Rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns affect birds' ability to find food and reproduce, which over time impacts local populations, and ultimately continent-wide populations, too. Some species may even go extinct in your state if they cannot find the conditions they need to survive and raise their young.
Select a warming scenario to see how this species’ range will change under increased global temperatures.
Reducing warming makes many types of birds found in Alabama less vulnerable.
In order to hold warming steady, we must act now to reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere and limit warming to 1.5 degrees. We must reduce our carbon emissions and also absorb what is produced through natural solutions like reforestation or with technology that removes carbon from the air.
Click the three different warming scenarios to explore how increased warming puts more species in Alabama at risk.
Alabama's Birds and Habitats
Located offshore, Dauphin Island is legendary for its birding during spring migration, when songbirds stop to rest at the first wooded land they spot after a long flight across the Gulf of Mexico. Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge attracts wintering ducks and loons to its open lakes and geese and cranes to its fields and bottomland hardwood swamps. Talladega National Forest hosts significant populations of Brown-headed Nuthatches and Bachman’s Sparrows, as well as scarcer Blue-headed Vireos.
Climate Policy in Alabama
RENEWABLE
6.6 % Hydro
.1 % Solar
NUCLEAR
FOSSIL FUEL
22.5 % Coal
Climate Alliance?
(Data: U.S. EIA)
Alabama’s solar energy generation is small, but it more than doubled between 2017 and 2018. The state also has an energy-efficiency program that encourages cost and consumption reductions.
Climate Threats Facing Birds and People in Alabama
Sea levels off Alabama’s shore have risen up to 11 inches since 1966 and could rise another six inches in the next 15 years, eroding beaches and wetlands and increasing damage from coastal storms. In coming decades, Alabama will likely experience severe heat waves, threatening crops and livestock as well as human communities, especially vulnerable people such as children, the elderly, the sick, and the poor.
The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk harm people, too. Hover over or tap an area on the map to see specific threats that will affect that area as warming increases.