Momentum Shift | Audubon

Take it from somebody who has stood in the midst of an Adélie Penguin colony, surrounded by birds perched atop rock nests and calling to mates: Penguins are loud. They’re industrious and affected person. And maybe above all, they’re singularly targeted on the duty at hand—discovering meals and elevating their younger. 

These qualities serve penguins effectively, however like birds throughout the hemisphere, they’re being examined. This challenge transports readers from Antarctica, the place the scientists featured in our opening pages observe the implications of shrinking sea ice, to Alaska, the place the Mendenhall Glacier, or Áak’w Tʼáak Sít’, is in dramatic retreat. Local weather change is quickly remodeling each locations, and as we see in Rachel Ramirez’s report, these and different ecosystems are approaching tipping factors that might result in irreversible collapse.

However we might by no means go away you adrift on a dwindling iceberg of hope. On the planet’s polar areas and all over the place in between that birds journey, persons are coming collectively to tip the scales towards a extra resilient future. In her feature story, Sarah Gilman describes a far-ranging effort, galvanized by federal businesses and their companions, to construct a local seed provide able to restoring to vibrance badly degraded U.S. lands.

And in Latin America, collaborations between conservationists and communities have swiftly unfold to 9 international locations and thousands and thousands of protected acres by way of Conserva Aves. Key to the initiative’s success is the position of native residents in designing and implementing options—an method additionally important to creating safer conditions for endangered seabirds offshore.

Different collaborations on this challenge are artistic. They contain reframing how folks see and interact with birdlife, whether or not that’s musical artists sampling birdsong or the Reiser brothers fascinating audiences by way of their deadpan expertise for documentary. I gained’t spoil their newest journey for you—you’ll have to take a look at Alisa Opar’s dispatch—however after watching Listers, we jumped on the probability to tag alongside. 

Our cowl creators have really elevated working collectively to an artwork kind. Learn the latest installment of The Aviary to extra totally grasp the duo’s craftsmanship: a whole bunch of tiny items of hand-painted paper painstakingly assembled right into a lifelike portrait of Nice Inexperienced Macaws. This species, like so many others, will profit from Conserva Aves—its outlook additional aided by folks appreciating it with recent perspective.

This piece initially ran within the Spring 2026 challenge. To obtain our print journal, change into a member by making a donation today.