A couple of days ago, in an informative post about Western Tanagers, Bill
Whan mentioned that their main wintering range was in Mexico and Central
America, and suggested that many of their wintering areas had been wiped out
by coffee plantations.  This is a subject of some interest to me, since I've
spent more than 30 months in the field in Mexico and Central America, most
of it in winter, and have paid close attention to the wintering habitats of
migrants from North America.  I wasn't going to comment, but then someone
asked me privately whether I thought we should all give up coffee to save
migratory birds.  This gives me a chance to mention an important
conservation issue -- one that's familiar to many on this list (including
Bill, of course) but apparently will be new to some.

In fact, I've seen hundreds of Western Tanagers in coffee plantations -- as
well as large numbers of Nashville Warblers, Black-throated Green Warblers,
Wilson's Warblers, Baltimore Orioles, and many other migrants, plus many
native tropical birds.  In fact, we often make a point of going to coffee
plantations for the excellent birding there.  The trick is that it has to be
the right kind of coffee.

Traditionally coffee was grown in the shade, and the easiest way to
establish a plantation was to clear out the undergrowth in native
subtropical forest and plant the coffee bushes among the existing trees.
The plantations, tended by hand, required little in the way of fertilizers,
pesticides, or other chemicals, and much of the diversity of the original
forest remained intact (not all of the diversity, of course, but most of
it).  Unfortunately, new strains of coffee were developed that could be
grown in full sun.  These sun coffee plantations can be run as large
operations and can sell coffee more cheaply for a higher profit, but they
are practically biological deserts, doused in chemicals and supporting fewer
birds than the average parking lot.

It's still possible to buy coffee grown in the shade.  And if more people
demanded this type, there would be less pressure to clear out the
traditional plantations and replace them with sun coffee monocultures.
Shade coffee costs a little more, but Kim and I always buy it, ask for it in
restaurants, etc., as a small way of trying to protect migratory birds.
Shade coffee is available at many wild bird specialty shops, nature centers,
etc., including the shop of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, and it's also
possible to buy it by mail or online.

The latest issue of Bird Watcher's Digest (November-December 2006) has an
excellent article by Paul Baicich about shade-grown coffee.  You can also
find information online.  Enter "shade coffee migratory birds" in any search
engine and you'll get a variety of worthwhile sources, including the
Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, which has paid a lot of attention to this
subject.

Best wishes to all who are looking for (or at) the Western Tanager this
week, and if you decide to warm up afterwards with a cup of coffee, think
about making it shade-grown coffee.  If all birders took up this cause, we
could make a difference for bird habitat.

Kenn Kaufman
Rocky Ridge, Ohio

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