Years ago, we learned how our coffee choice has a big impact on birds. And it’s now recognized that maple syrup and cacao choices have similar impacts.
The problem is that in the 1970s, industrial agriculture arrived to coffee-growing areas. A large proportion of coffee is now being grown in sun plantations rather than in the shade, as was the traditional way to grow coffee. These sun plantations are biological deserts as far as their ability to support any life except the coffee plants themselves.
Especially important to us, we learned that it affects the very birds that spend their summer in our yard.
Many of our favorite birds, such as most catbirds and hummingbirds, fly all the way to Central America for the winter.
Will they have a winter home so they can return next summer?
Besides the catbird, here are just a few of our yard’s summer bird visitors that depend on shade coffee plantations for survival during the winter:
Certifications
The certification that most clearly benefits birds is the “Bird Friendly Habitat” certification, developed by the Smithsonian Institution’s Migratory Bird Center. (It was formerly known as “Bird Friendly.”)
Coffee certified as “Bird Friendly Habitat” is
- 100% organic,
- shade-grown, and
- requires a variety of native shade trees throughout the plantation.
IMPORTANT: Coffee certified simply as “organic,” or “shade-grown,” or “Fair Trade” etc. does NOT necessarily provide the rainforest-like habitat birds (and other indigenous wildlife) need. Look for the Smithsonian logo that says “Bird Friendly” (with “Smithsonian” underneath in small letters).
Bird friendly is people friendly, too!
Also important, this kind of coffee benefits the small-scale farmers and the Central American environment. The farmers get a larger percentage of the price paid, and no toxic chemicals are used that would otherwise pollute their land and the people who live there.
Where to find it
NOTE: Don’t expect the staff at these stores to know anything about this certification! From my experience, they don’t even know they stock this special coffee. You’re on your own!
Look for the Bird Friendly certification logo to know that the Smithsonian Institution has certified the coffee farm as providing habitat.
Here are some of the brands we’ve purchased:
Wegmans: We were thrilled that our local Wegmans store stocks certified Bird Friendly coffee! It’s now the only kind we buy.
At Wegmans, their Organic Guatemalan Specialty Coffee is certified as Bird Friendly.
Even better, this coffee is triple-certified — not only Bird Friendly but also Organic and Fair Trade!
It’s not just good for birds, but also for people and the planet.
Whole Foods: Available as one of the selections in the “Allegro” line of coffees.
As with the Wegmans coffee above, only one of the many Allegro varieties is certified as Bird Friendly Habitat, so look for the logo!
Online: You can find it online, too, such as this Birds & Beans brand. Unlike the above brands, this is available in different varieties.
Just be sure to look for the Smithsonian’s “Bird Friendly” logo.
Find a Bird Friendly coffee retailer near you (Note: As of July 2022, this doesn’t seem to show Wegmans as having Bird-friendly coffee, though they do.)
Maple syrup can be bird-friendly, too!
Just as with coffee, the way we produce the products we use affects other creatures. Our choices again make a difference, this time, though, in the Northeast really close to home. And as with coffee, choosing products from local growers putting in the effort to grow their product sustainable benefits people as well as birds.
This program builds on the Foresters for the Birds project and is a partnership between Audubon Vermont biologists, the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, & Recreation, and the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association.
So far (early 2022) I haven’t found it in any local stores, but the Audubon website lists online sources.
Even bird-friendly chocolate!
Along with coffee and maple syrup, chocolate is something I wouldn’t want to do without. In the past, I’ve chosen brands of chocolate that don’t use child slavery in their production, but now (2023) I’m looking for brands that support birds as well: those certified as Bird-Friendly Cocoa by the Smithsonian Bird Institute.
Resources
- Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center:
- Bird Friendly coffee FAQs
- Why migratory birds are crazy for coffee
- About Bird Friendly coffee
- Birds supported by coffee farms
- Bird Friendly farm criteria
- Neotropical migratory bird FAQs
- Ecological benefits of shade-grown coffee
- Costa Rican Pollination Blog: Sustainable coffee
- Find a Bird Friendly coffee retailer near you
- Bird Friendly coffee – 5-min. video showing a local farmer’s plantation
- Travel alert for migratory birds: Stopover sites in decline (1997, but still useful)
- Solving the perilous puzzle of bird migration
- Bird-friendly cocoa
- American Bird Conservancy:
- Audubon:
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds:
- Bird friendly coffee supports critical winter habitat. (And a video in the right sidebar)
- Coffee made in the shade can be more profitable thanks to birds (2021) – Buying certified bird-friendly coffee helps local coffee farmers, too
- Conservation Sci: Amanda Rodewald Discusses Shade Grown Coffee – 5-min video
- How to save songbirds with your morning coffee – 55-min. webinar (2021)
- Turning maple syrup forests into bird-friendly habitat
- NRDC:
- Science Daily:
- Journey North:
- Summer and winter range maps show that relatively little land is available in the winter, so conservation of winter habitat is very important.
Maple syrup
- National Audubon Society:
- Maple syrup produced in bird-friendly habitats
- VIDEO: How we make maple syrup the bird-friendly way – short 1-min video
Cocoa
- Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center:
- National Audubon Society: