Birds and other biodiversity

Here’s a entry in the occasional Know Your Coffee Bird series, which profiles birds that utilize shade coffee farms. This post is about a species people might not immediately connect […]

Revised on March 4, 2021

Some time ago, I wrote a detailed post about “land sharing” versus “land sparing“, two agriculture strategies. In a nutshell, land sharing is the use of cover crops, interplantings, and […]

Revised on March 8, 2021

A profile of a bird species that has a very special, recently defined connection to coffee.

Revised on January 7, 2022

Support a conservation program that provides native shade trees to Nicaraguan coffee farmers.

Revised on January 7, 2022

Summary of recent research directly from the paper, not the press release.

Revised on November 28, 2020

A species of orchid is named for a coffee company (Puro Coffee) that contributed to the preservation of land on which the orchid — among other species — was discovered. Includes a coffee review.

Revised on May 20, 2021

A look at the charming and lively American Redstart, a warbler commonly found in Latin American shade coffee farms in winter.

Revised on January 7, 2022

The Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) is often heard before it is seen, a loud ringing “tea-cher, TEA-cher, TEA-CHER!” broadcast from close to the forest floor through much of the eastern U.S. […]

Revised on January 8, 2022

A profile of the Malabar Barbet, the first Old World species in our series on Know Your Coffee Birds. This one is found only in India’s Western Ghats.

Revised on November 25, 2020

Learn more about the brilliant Scarlet Tanager. It inspired my love of birds and my career, and is symbolic of “our” birds that winter in the tropics on shade coffee farms.

Revised on July 19, 2022

Want warblers to eat your coffee berry borers? Give them some forest to sleep in.

Revised on January 7, 2022

It’s not just that you have fruit trees on a farm, but what types they are, that are important for birds.

Revised on November 29, 2020

This paper looked at the diversity and abundance of frogs and salamanders in an area of tropical montane cloud forest, shade coffee farms, and corn plantations in southern Mexico.

Revised on November 14, 2019

There are two species of palm-tanagers (Phaenicophilus) found on Hispaniola, the island comprised of the Dominican Republic (DR) and Haiti.  One is the widespread Black-crowned Palm-Tanager (P. palmarum). The other […]

Revised on January 8, 2022

Share it or spare it?

by JulieCraves on June 21, 2011

Intensifying production while conserving biodiversity Food security and the ability of agricultural lands to feed over 9 billion people by 2050 is an increasingly-discussed topic. Part of this issue is […]

Revised on January 8, 2022