BIRD FRIENDLY COFFEE?

Bird Friendly coffee is certified organic and produced on farms with a shade cover that provides important habitat for migratory and resident birds in tropical landscapes, which are increasingly threatened by deforestation globally at an unprecedented rate. The Bird Friendly criteria are the world's most stringent standards for shade-grown coffee production.

At 34 million pounds, the total volume of Bird Friendly certified coffee produced has grown by 24 million pounds in the past decade with more than 5,100 participants managing farms from Mexico to Colombia and Ethiopia to Thailand. Bird Friendly habitat covers more than 37,000 acres around the world

When the coffee reaches its final destination — where it is roasted, packaged and sold — roasters can use the Smithsonian Bird Friendly seal to market their Bird Friendly coffees to consumers. These pennies-on-the-pound royalty fees fuel the program, as well as the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center’s cutting-edge ornithological research exploring the connections between birds, coffee and beyond. Excitingly, some of the following studies cited in Mexico and Costa Rica were supported with funds from royalties remitted to SMBC by roasters involved in the Bird Friendly program. These remittances paid by forward-looking coffee roasters help to fund scientific work that would otherwise not be possible.