The mobility of birds makes them potentially excellent biotic indicators of climate change. The FitzPatrick Institute’s climate-change research focuses on sub-lethal effects of climate change and how birds’ responses to a changing climate are manifested in spatial and/or fitness consequences. These studies provide the mechanistic links lacking from most models of the biotic effects of climate change. We currently have two major projects underway, one in hot deserts (in South Africa, Australia and the south-western United States), and one in the Fynbos Biome.