Each spring and fall, Northern Virginia welcomes the variety of migratory birds passing through our region. These avian migrants connect us to distant ecosystems thousands of miles away. But many of these beloved bird populations are disappearing at a dramatic rate.
"Bird populations are in steep decline," explained Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s BJ Lecrone. "The bird population in the U.S. and Canada has declined by almost 30%—that’s about three billion birds since 1970 across large geographical areas—and habitat loss is a driving force."
Surprisingly, your morning coffee might be part of the problem.
"Seventy-five percent of the world's coffee is now farmed with practices that leave no place for birds and actively destroy the forest habitat," Lecrone noted. "When their habitats disappear, migratory songbirds disappear, too."
Coffee traditionally was grown under shade-grown forest canopies, where birds and other wildlife thrived alongside coffee plants. But in the 1970s, the coffee industry discovered that sun-grown coffee—planted in cleared areas without tree cover—ripened more quickly. By clearing land and growing large crops of coffee in tree-free, sun-baked fields, they could increase production and profits.
"That’s when they started transitioning to sun-grown coffee, which meant deforesting and less biodiversity," Lecrone said.
But this shift created a damaging cycle. Removing forests pushed wildlife and birds out, and coffee producers needed pesticides—which also harm birds—to protect their crops from insects.
"The natural predators are removed when they remove that forest and canopy," Lecrone explained. “There is a balance of nature, and this puts things out of balance.”
Smithsonian Bird Friendly Shade-Grown Alternative
By choosing Smithsonian Bird Friendly® certified organic coffee, consumers can help reverse this trend. The certification has strict requirements for shade-grown coffee, including
· Crops must have at least 40% shade cover.
· The tree canopy must be at least 12 meters tall and consist of the dominant native tree species.
· The crop must be pesticide-free.
Bird Friendly-certified coffee helps maintain the native tree canopies that provide crucial habitat for migratory birds that winter in Central America and Mexico before returning to Virginia each spring.
"With the sun-grown coffee, it's just a monoculture, and it’s very hard for birds to survive and thrive there," Lecrone said. "Forest-canopied areas can support about 200 bird species. So we can do our part."
The benefits extend beyond birds. Bird Friendly-certified coffee farms maintain biodiversity, require fewer chemicals, and produce higher-quality beans.
"With the shade-grown certified coffee, when you have that balance of nature, the birds have their habitat back, they have the insects to support their diet, and everything's in balance," Lecrone explained. "You don't need the pesticides, so it's naturally better for you."
The True Cost
While bird-friendly coffee can cost more at checkout, conventional coffee carries a heavy environmental toll paid by wildlife and ecosystems. The pennies you might save come at the expense of forest habitats, clean water, and bird populations that have declined by nearly a third in just five decades.
Local shops like Hamilton Mercantile and Watermark Woods in Hamilton, Va., and companies like Wuuds Roasters in Front Royal, Va., now offer Smithsonian Bird Friendly options, making it relatively easy to have this positive impact for birds.
“Bird populations are connected,” Lecrone said. “We need native plants here to support the habitat and food web that birds need to thrive, whether they live here year-round or are migrating through."
So when you wake with the birds, pour out a cup that will help support that dawn chorus, now and for future generations.