Saving our "Birds of Summer" by drinking (the right) coffee

OK, so you’ve read my posts about trying to save our “Birds of Summer,” the ones that migrate to Central and South America for the winter, by establishing a network of sister birding clubs in North and Central America.  Some of you have even contributed to my Go Fund Me campaign (www.gofundme.com/2rha68nv) to support my travel within Honduras to meet with birding clubs there.  Many more of you are probably scratching your heads and saying: what can I do personally to help save our “Birds of Summer” if I am not a member of birding club?

One easy answer is to buy shade-grown coffee.  Coffee beans are found on shrubs in the understory of tropical forests.  According to conservationist and author Scott Weidensaul (https://abcbirds.org/northern-climes-to-nicaragua-long-distance-migrants-on-shade-coffee-farms/), coffee trees in Central America were cultivated and tended in the natural, shady, understory of these forests for about 200 years prior to recent conversion millions of acres of neotropical forest to sun-grown coffee plantations.  Traditionally, coffee beans were harvested from these understory trees by small-scale farmers, and the rest of the forest trees provided necessary habitat for a diverse array of animals.  Just in the past few decades, larger-scale commercial ventures started removing the forest to plant coffee trees in full-sun plantations.  Out in the sun, the coffee plants produced a greater quantity of beans compared to shade-grown coffee plants, and they were easier to harvest.  But, the higher quantity has come with a very stiff price.

Hooded Warbler is one species that heavily use shade-grown coffee areas and virtually avoid full-sun coffee plantations.  Photo credit Birdspic.com.

Sun coffee requires many more chemical inputs than shade-grown coffee, including petroleum-based fertilizers, insecticides, and other pest-control efforts.  Shade-grown coffee can, and is, grown commercially in the understory of thinned forests.  Those forests retain a high level of the natural diversity of plants, animals, and insects that occur in unmanaged forest.  For example, shade-grown coffee farms in the state of Chiapas, Mexico have been reported to contain more than 180 species of birds, including more than four-dozen migratory species.  Sun coffee plantations nearby were found to contain only eight species, and generally were shunned by Neotropical migrants. 

Similarly, in Nicaragua, just south of where I’ll be in Honduras, a joint team of researchers from York University in Toronto and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania surveyed shade-grown coffee producing areas and adjacent, full-sun coffee plantations for birds.  They found more than 130 bird species in the shade-grown areas, including a vast array of Neotropical migrants.  In the full-sun plantations, they found only a handful of bird species.  Clearly, shade-grown cultivation of coffee is necessary to protect birds.

The more diverse array of plants, animals, and insects found in shade-grown coffee operations provide for a more stable and complex food system.  All those birds help to keep coffee pests under control, virtually eliminating the need for pesticides.  Similarly, the natural ecological processes that can continue to occur in shade-grown coffee areas lessens some of the other challenges that occur in sun coffee plantations, like soil erosion and the need for chemical fertilizers. 

Chestnut-sided Warblers use shade-grown coffee areas on their wintering grounds.  Their population has declined 44% between 1966 and 2015, in large part because of habitat loss.  Photo credit: Planetofbirds.com.

In addition, taste tests have repeatedly shown that shade-grown coffee is of higher quality and tastes better than full-sun coffee.  The main reason for this is that it takes longer for the beans to mature and ripen in the shade.  This longer ripening process produces a more complex and robust flavor in the beans compared to the beans that ripen more quickly in the full sun.

Another huge benefit of the shade-grown coffee production is that much of it is produced by cooperatives of small-scale farmers using organic farming methods.  They can tend and harvest this crop without the harmful effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.  Maintaining the overstory of forest and the diversity of plants and animals in that forest also is better for soil and water conservation in these areas compared full-sun coffee.  These local communities clearly benefit from shade-grown coffee, too.

I admit it – I am a coffee-drinking fiend.  The good news is that I don’t have to stop drinking coffee.  I just have to make the choice to buy bird-friendly, shade-grown coffee.  You can do this easy act, too, to help protect our “Birds of Summer.”

Finding shade-grown coffee in the U.S.

            When you buy coffee, look for bird-friendly certification by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.  One of the few certified sellers of bird-friendly coffee in the U.S. is a company called Birds and Beans.  If you can’t find their product in your local grocery store, you can order it to be delivered right to your door from

http://www.birdsandbeans.com/.

Baltimore Orioles winter in Central America, especially in shade-grown coffee producing areas.  Their population has declined by about a quarter since 1966 because of habitat loss.  Photo credit: Shea1.blogspot.com.