There are two main ways to grow coffee:  a full-sun monoculture (coffee bushes are planted and no other plant is tolerated in the plantation) or shade-grown coffee where coffee bushes are grown under a forest canopy managed to provide ideal shade levels.   In forest ecology, canopy refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms (epiphytes, lianas, arboreal animals, etc.). Shade trees normally have a canopy that blocks light from lower growing plants.

The value of coffee farms for wild birds is dependent largely upon the diversity of their canopy: both the number of different species and the structural complexity of the canopy. Invertebrates, fruit, and nectar are the most important food sources for birds in coffee farms, so coffee farms are especially important to bird species that feed on these resources.Shade-grown plantations provide multiple benefits to the environment and always have a significantly higher wild bird diversity (as well as a diversity of other species) than do full-sun coffee plantations.

Shade-grown coffee plantations offer important refuges for species in areas where natural habitats have been converted to agriculture.  Bird diversity in shade-grown coffee plantations sometimes rivals that of natural forests.  Wild birds in shade coffee plantations feed in the shaded overstory.  The coffee shrubs themselves offer few resources.  This is why sun coffee monocultures do not support a diversity of birds. Our coffee farms are excellent winter refuges for wild migratory birds.  There are 52 north american birds wintering in shade-grown coffee plantations.  We would like to protect them!

We have developed a coffee farm criteria to achieve the Bird Amigo ™ certification.  We think it is important to help the environment by drinking coffee that meets the following criteria:

• Coffee farmer pays fare wages and provides decent working conditions
• Coffee bushes under shade
• There is an ecological environment with shelter, food and water for wild birds and other wild animals
• Farmer uses organic fertilization

Bird Amigo™ Coffee Farm Criteria