Research
on coffee farm habitats can help both fowl and farmers
Date: March 27, 2019
Source: University of Delaware
Coffee
grown under a tree canopy is promoted as good habitat for birds, but recent
University of Delaware research shows that some of these coffee farms may not
be as friendly to our feathered friends as advertised.
Working
with geographer Robert Rice of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC),
University of Delaware Professor of Entomology Doug Tallamy and former UD
graduate student Desirée Narango studied canopy tree preference of birds in
shade-coffee farms with a particular focus on the implications for migratory
birds that spend the winter in neotropical coffee farms. The research was published
in the journal Biotropica.
Americans
drink a lot of coffee -- 64 percent of those aged 18 or over had at least one
cup per day. That's more than 150 million people in the U.S. and we all know
one cup is a light day for many of our friends and family. This incredible
demand for coffee means a lot of land in tropical zones is used to grow coffee
beans in neotropical countries like Colombia and Nicaragua (where the UD study
took place). Across central and South America, land converted to coffee
agriculture occupies more than five million hectares of what was once prime
overwintering natural habitat for migratory birds.
"Coffee
grows right at the altitude that most of our neo-tropical migratory birds are
spending the winter, particularly species that are losing one to two percent of
their population every year like the cerulean warbler, Canada warbler and wood
thrush," said Tallamy. "A lot of this land has been leveled for
coffee farms."
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