Climate change and rising sea level prompt roseate spoonbill migration



















  • Roseate spoonbills were nearly wiped out by plume hunters, now climate change threatens their habitats.
  • Through a century of conservation efforts, the birds rebounded.
  • Records show spoonbills have been seen in 34 states and three Canadian provinces.
  • Sea level rise threatens their traditional habitat in Florida Bay, while warmer temperatures allow nesting to expand northward.

Photographer Jami Linder’s dad came home from the woods in early 2020 with a tale she could hardly believe. He’d met a man who invited her to come take pictures of the big, pink birds living in a remote swamp on his land near the Mississippi River.

Linder had tramped the woods and wilds in the southeastern corner of Arkansas with her dad all of her life and had never seen a pink bird. She knew they lived along marshy coastlines, but the closest was more than 200 miles to the south.