WHO KNEW Coffee Is So Important to Birds?

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, growing coffee originated as a forest-floor crop that thrived under the dense forest canopy. Some coffee is still grown this way. It requires little fertilizer, because the leaf litter in the forest breaks down and provides nutrients, and pesticides aren’t needed, because birds eat the insects. According to Cornell, 42 species of North American songbirds spend the winter in coffee plantations, but many of their populations are in decline. Part of the problem is the transition from more sustainable, shade-grown coffee to the increasingly popular sun-grown coffee. Modernization has allowed for an increase in sun tolerant coffee beans, which have a higher yield than the traditional shade-grown coffee. But in order to plant sun-grown coffee, tropical forests are cut down, wildlife habitat is lost, and artificial pesticides and fertilizers must be used. You can help reverse this trend by purchasing bird-friendly certified coffee. Birds & Beans, roasted in Massachusetts and sold at the Coop, is the only American coffee brand to have 100% bird-friendly-certified beans. But other shade-grown coffees are also beneficial to birds (see: Making Sense of Coffee Labels ).