Join BirdNote tomorrow, November 30th!
Illustrator David Sibley and actor H. Jon Benjamin will face off in the bird illustration battle of the century during BirdNote's Year-end Celebration and Auction!
Saving Birds, One Cup at a Time
Shade-grown coffee farms are a haven for birds.
© Becky Matsubara
Most coffee is grown industrially in wide-open fields with few places for birds and other species to live. But some farmers are returning to a more sustainable method, growing coffee under layers of natural tree canopy. The Smithsonian Institute certifies coffee as Bird Friendly if it meets a rigorous standard for habitat quality. On Bring Birds Back podcast, host Tenijah Hamilton discusses how coffee growing practices can benefit birds.
BirdNote®
Saving Birds, One Cup at a Time
Written by Mark Bramhill
This is BirdNote.
[Yellow-throated Toucan, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/109240971]
Today, much of the world’s coffee is grown industrially in wide-open fields, offering few places for birds and other species to live. But some farmers are returning to a more traditional and sustainable method, growing coffee in the shade under layers of natural tree canopy. Growing it this way provides incredible habitat for wildlife and migratory birds.
Justine Bowe is the program manager of the Bird Friendly Coffee program at the Smithsonian Institute’s Migratory Bird Center. The program works with coffee farmers to ensure their crops meet a rigorous standard, so that consumers know their coffee comes from a farm that’s helping protect birds. Because the difference between these farms is huge.
Justine Bowe: Walking through a field of sun coffee, it's hot, it's dusty. You don't really hear anything going on above you, but when you're walking through a bird friendly farm, it's cool. You have the rainforest cover above you. And what you hear is the sounds of a rainforest.
[Yellow-throated Toucan, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/109240971]
Even if you closed your eyes, you'd know where you were.
[Spectacled Thrush calls, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/216962361]
You can learn a whole latte more about bird-friendly coffee on the latest episode of our podcast, Bring Birds Back. Listen in your podcast app, or at BirdNote.org. I’m Tenijah Hamilton.
###
Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Digital Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Yellow-throated Toucan ML 109240971 recorded by G. Seeholzer, Spectacled Thrush ML 216962361 recorded by I. Lau.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2021 BirdNote September 2021 Narrator: Tenijah Hamilton
ID# PodBBB-07-2021-09-02 PodBBB-07
Mark Bramhill
Writer