In the video above, Executive Director Brigid McCormack talks about one of her favorite birds, and what Audubon California is doing to protect it and others threatened by global warming.

Global warming is a serious threat to California birds. A seven-year study from the National Audubon Society released in September 2014 finds that global warming threatens the survival of 170 California species in the coming decades. This includes iconic California birds such as the Brown Pelican, Allen’s Hummingbird, Yellow-billed Magpie, and many others. These are birds that all of us know well from our backyards and from our own experiences in California’s beautiful outdoors. 

Audubon California is addressing this challenge by protecting the habitats that we know birds will need now and into the future, and doing what we can to lessen the severity of global warming. We’ll do this work with a variety of partners on the ground and in the halls of the State Capitol and Washington, D.C.

Learn more about our efforts to support climate change legislation at the California State Capitol.

But we won’t be able to rise to this challenge without the involvement of California residents who care about birds. We need people not only to join us in this important work, but to also raise their voices to call for meaningful policy and legislative action on global warming.

See what this means for five California species:

• Allen's Hummingbird
• Long-billed Curlew
• Western Grebe
• Black Oystercatcher
• Yellow-billed Magpie

View the complete list of California birds threatened by global warming.

You can help your birds meet the challenge of global warming:

• Call your elected representatives and ask what they’re doing to protect your birds.
• Volunteer near you to help us monitor and protect your local birds.
• Get involved in Hummingbirds @ Home

More about the Audubon study.

Audubon analyzed more than 40 years of historical North American climate data and millions of historical bird records from the U.S. Geological Survey’s North American Breeding Bird Survey and the Audubon Christmas Bird Count to understand the links between where birds live and the climatic conditions that support them. Of 588 bird species examined in the study, 314 species are considered at-risk. Hundreds of species not previously considered at risk will be challenged to survive in a climate-changed future. Understanding those links then allows scientists to project where birds are likely to be able to survive – and not survive – in the future. Learn more about the study.