INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Global climate change is affecting migratory wildlife in Indiana, according to a new United Nations climate report.

The report notes all migratory animals across the planet are affected by rising temperatures and erratic weather patterns. These issues are confusing animals that fly south for the winter and causing new species to move north.

These changes have the potential to cause a ripple effect across various ecosystems.

Dan Borrit, the executive director of the Indiana Wildlife Federation, said animals that migrate evolved over millions of years and climate change is moving too quickly for them to keep up.

“We have measurable changes in migration patterns in decades scales,” Borrit said. “Temperatures are rising by nearly a degree a decade in some places, and it is essentially throwing a system that has to work in perfect harmony for its success out of whack.”

Borrit said warmer temperatures are causing earlier springs meaning migratory animals could miss out on the peak feeding and mating times.

“If they’re getting there too late, the grass has already emerged,” Borrit said. “The insects have already hatched and started to move away. They missed peak time for nourishment.”

Donna Riner, a naturalist for the Eagle Creek Ornithology Center, said throwing these systems out of order has ripple effects.

“We need these animals to reduce our insect populations by consuming those insects and helping us with agriculture,” Riner said. “They’re also important seed dispersers so our forests are going to change without the birds around.”

Donna McCarty is a volunteer at Eagle Creek Ornithology Center. She said over the 48 years she’s been bird watching at the park she has noticed a shift in birds moving north.

“Great egrets. We see them a lot more than we used to,” said McCarty. “It used to be that in the late summer-fall, we’d get a few, but now some of them can be found year-round in the state. On the other hand, some warblers that used to nest here don’t.”

On Sunday, McCarty will join other volunteers in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count to help record how many and what kinds of birds live in the Eagle Creek area of Indianapolis so scientists will have a better understanding of the populations.

It is not just wildlife in Indiana that is feeling the pressure of climate change. Sea creatures and other species are having some of the same issues that Indiana animals are facing.