For The Birds - birds that migrate to Latin America reside in coffee plantations there - Brief Article

Coffee--it's perhaps surprising that something so commonplace in our everyday lives, so ubiquitous throughout culture, plays such an important role in the lives of our migratory birds.

Facing devastating habitat loss and degradation on their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada and on their wintering grounds in Central and South America, migratory birds have found refuge in the lush forest-like environments of traditional coffee plantations. In fact, researchers at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have revealed that of all agricultural systems in the tropics, traditionally-managed coffee plantations support more species of birds--over 150--than any other type of agriculture.

Yet coffee farming in Latin America is changing. Traditionally, coffee was grown under a canopy of shade trees, providing critical wintering habitat crucial to many species of migratory birds and preserving the rich biodiversity inherent in tropical rainforests. Increasingly, however, industrial coffee farms, where land is cleared of its lush vegetation to grow coffee in full sun, are replacing traditional coffee farms. With this conversion from traditional shade-grown to industrial sun-grown coffee comes a corresponding decrease in migratory bird species, and this decrease in species diversity is dramatic--over 90% fewer bird species are found on sun-grown coffee farms than on shade-grown coffee farms.

By choosing shade-grown coffee, coffee drinkers not only help common birds, like the Baltimore Oriole and Ruby-throated Hummingbird, that use shade-coffee plantations during the winter, but also a host of at-risk Watch List species, including:

Swallow-tailed Kite Black-throated Blue Warbler Short-tailed Hawk Hermit Warbler Chuck-will's-widow Cerulean Warbler Buff-bellied Hummingbird Kentucky Warbler Greater Pewee Painted Bunting Wood Thrush Audubon's Oriole Golden-winged Warbler

Special thanks to the Audubon Society and The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. For more information visit www.si.edu/smbc/or phone 212.979.3000.

COPYRIGHT 2001 KC Publishers, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group

question about bird sounds (9 posts)
by Doug McDonald - Last post on: 03-31-04 22:35
I keep hearing this bird ... or birds. Mostly I hear a cooUHH ooo ooo ooo sound. The length of the spaces matters. The UHH is louder, short in time (a grace note?) and one half-tone higher. I found online bird call recordings and it fits a mourning dove best, though perhaps a great hor... (Read More)

Test (1 posts)
by John T - Last post on: 07-20-03 13:48
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Recent sightings (4 posts)
by Wynter - Last post on: 05-10-04 11:34
No hummers or orioles in my yard. Am thinking all the spruces and other trees make the feeders hard to spot. The grape jelly keeps disappearing overnight and I caught the culprit. One big ugly oppossum. I have a rabbit feeds openly during the day now at the ground feeder. Was watching it t... (Read More)