Full life-cycle vulnerability assessments are identifying the effects of climate change on nongame migratory birds that are of conservation concern and breed in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region. Full life-cycle analyses are critical, as current efforts likely underestimate the vulnerability of migratory land birds due to a focus on assessing only one component of the annual cycle. The approach provides a framework for integrating exposure to climate changes, sensitivity to these changes, and the potential for adaptation in both winter and summer seasons, and accounts for carry-over effects from one season to another. The results of this work will inform regional management by highlighting both local and distant drivers of vulnerability, and provide a model for accounting for the complexities of migration within multi-taxa assessments that can also be applied to other species, such as waterfowl and fish. Bird banding data, life history information, and down-scaled climate data are the primary source data for the project.
