Poleward range shifts of breeding birds in Wisconsin

Climate change is causing shifts in the geographic ranges of multiple species across the world. Birds are a critical taxon for observing range shifts because their high mobility allows them to track shifting climates over time and space. Breeding bird atlases are large-scale breeding bird surveys that are essential for tracking species’ ranges in response to climate change. In this paper, our goal was to analyze Wisconsin’s Breeding Bird Atlases (1995­–2000 & 2015–2019) to document changes in range size, mean latitude, and range boundary shift of breeding birds. Concordant with our predictions, we found that many southerly bird species with northern range limits were both expanding in distribution and shifting their range boundaries poleward. Contrary to our predictions, northerly species with southern range limits in the state were not shifting their boundary poleward but demonstrated a northward movement in their mean latitudes. Despite the lack of range boundary shift for norther..., , This README file was created on 2025-03-15 by Drake Stallworth. Last
updated: 2025-08-19

Contact Information- Drake Stallworth, University of Wisconsin–Madison, [[e-mail],](mailto:[e-mail]) ORCID ID: 0009-0000-6197-9660

#### File: ATLASDATA.xlsx

This file contains two sheets containing breeding bird atlas data for both atlases.

Sheet: ATLAS I

This file contains Atlas I block data for the 85 species of interest of our study. Duplicate blocks have been filtered out of this file.

COMMON.NAME- The common name of the species ATLAS.BLOCK- The block ID where the species was observed throughout the atlasing period

LATITUDECENTROID- The latitude of the centroid of the block where the species was observed

Sheet: ATLAS II

This file contains Atlas II block data for the 85 species of interest of our study. Duplicate blocks have been filtered out of this file.

COMMON.NAME- The common name of the species

ATLAS.BLOCK- The block ID where the species was obs...,