As climate shifts, birds follow

Most bird species in California’s Sierra Nevadas have altered their ranges during the last century in response to changes in temperature and rainfall

Climate has become warmer and wetter in parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains over the past century, and the vast majority of the birds there have shifted their range accordingly, a new study suggests.

ON THE MOVE The mountain bluebird (left) and Bullock’s oriole (right) are two of the dozens of bird species whose breeding ranges in California’s Sierra Nevadas have shifted over the past century due to climate change.