What Is Bird Friendly® Coffee?

Every winter morning in North America, millions of migratory birds pass through the same landscapes where your coffee grows in Central and South America. What happens on those farms matters; for the birds, for the environment, for the farmers, and for what ends up in your cup.

For decades, conventional farms have cleared vast landscapes and rainforests to grow our favorite brew in full sun, degrading the environment, the soil, and watersheds, and drastically reducing habitat and food for birds and other wildlife. 

That’s where Bird Friendly® coffee comes in. Join us to explore what Bird Friendly® certification really means, why shade-grown coffee matters, and how our cooperative partners are helping create healthier habitats for birds and people alike. 

What Is Bird Friendly® Coffee? 

Coffees that are certified Bird Friendly® by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC)  are also certified organic and have gone through a rigorous certification process. 

Certification requires a diverse tree canopy that supports both migratory and resident bird habitats and overall ecosystem health. This means you can’t just grow a single species of fruit or lumber tree with coffee beneath it and call it Bird Friendly®. It’s about creating multiple layers of forest and enhancing biodiversity, not just creating shade. 

What Makes Coffee Bird Friendly®? 

Bird Friendly® farms grow coffee in a sustainable agricultural system that mimics natural forests by integrating agricultural crops, like coffee, with layers of different tree species that grow at different heights to produce multiple layers of shade. 

This creates unique microhabitats, allowing a diverse array of birds but also plants, insects, spiders, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals to find food and shelter.

Birds are important. They are pollinators, eat pests, drop guano and manure that enriches the soil, making it more fertile for crops. The focus on structural diversity and biodiversity makes these farms friendly to birds.  

Why Shade-Grown Coffee Matters for Birds

Shade-grown coffee is one of the most important agricultural systems for our avian friends. Coffee is a small understory tree or shrub that naturally grows in the shade of much larger trees. When you grow them in sun-drenched monocultures (think vast fields of one species of coffee) all of that wonderful native biodiversity, including birds, plummets. 

However, studies have repeatedly shown that high-shade coffee farms support a much higher diversity of birds, animals, and epiphyte plants than sun-grown systems. This provides forested habitats for birds like the Olive-sided Flycatcher, Broad-winged Hawk, and Ovenbird to use for food and resting spots while migrating. 

Bird Friendly® Coffee and the Bigger Picture

As a certified B Corporation and worker-owned cooperative, environmental stewardship isn't a marketing gimmick at Dean’s Beans; it's foundational to everything we do. Our founder Dean was an environmental and indigenous rights lawyer for many years, and environmental stewardship is one of the core principles our worker-owned cooperative is based on. 

We stand by our certified organic, Fair Trade, shade-grown coffees because we work closely with the farmers, visiting their farms, seeing and tasting the benefits firsthand.

Beyond Birds: Environmental Benefits

Shade-grown coffee also has enormous environmental benefits. The shade and diverse root systems conserve water, protect the topsoil from erosion, conserving the precious layer of microorganisms that supports nearly all terrestrial plant growth while sequestering more organic carbon and helping combat climate change. 

It also promotes soil fertility and helps retain soil moisture, further supporting biodiversity. Better water retention in the soil and interception of rain by trees also prevent erosion and promote healthy watersheds. 

Balanced ecosystems also mean an increased diversity of resident wildlife and invertebrate species like insects. People often have this misconception that more insects are harmful. 

However, according to the National Pesticide Information Center, only 1–3% of insects are actually pests. The rest either have no effect or are beneficial, like parasitic wasps, spiders, and lacewings, which, along with birds, naturally keep pest populations in check. 

In sunny monocultures, pests like the coffee berry borer beetle can cause major crop losses if left unchecked, forcing farmers to reach for expensive, toxic chemical control measures. By inviting birds and bugs, nature does the hard work, keeping pests in check while saving farmers money and keeping toxins out of their water supply. 

People-Centered Coffee: Thriving Forests Stable Families

However, the bigger picture goes beyond environmental and biodiversity benefits. It’s also about People-Centered Development and real generational sustainability and healing—not just for the land, but for the farmers and communities who enjoy social and economic benefits from growing beans in a more sustainable way. 

The farmers often choose specific shade trees for use for fruits, wood, and other products for their consumption or for resale. No synthetic chemicals, reduced erosion, and enhanced water reception mean healthier, more sustainable, farms and ecosystems in the long term. And healthier ecosystems mean more stable, more productive farms, and Pangoa's story is one of the clearest examples we know.

We just returned from a visit with our partners at the CAC Pangoa Cooperative in Peru, where we’ve gotten to witness a forest transformation unfold for nearly 20 years. 

CAC Pangoa has created a massive reforestation project that has reclaimed degraded conventional pineapple farmland, restoring soil health and biodiversity. Today, living topsoil and a canopy of native trees, bamboo, and understory plants cradling organic coffee plants have replaced the barren soil. 

Watching the birds and other life return to a landscape that conventional agriculture had written off is a testament to what these farmers have built, and to what long-term, cooperative-led land stewardship actually looks like.

We also enjoy watching the birds return each year to our favorite wild places closer to home. It gives us a powerful sense of connection when we imagine that the birds we see might have spent the winter in the same place where the coffee in our cup was grown.  

How Bird Friendly® Certification Works

SMBC Bird Friendly® certified means the coffee is grown in a sustainable agricultural system that retains a natural tree canopy, creating multiple habitat niches to support biodiversity, with a focus on birds.

First, these coffees must be certified organic, since conventional farm chemicals harm biodiversity, especially insects. Since the vast majority of birds rely heavily on insects for food, a chemical-heavy farm, even shade-grown, is devoid of food for most birds. And they need a lot of food when nesting or on long migratory flights. 

Then, the farms have to meet rigorous standards for dense shade cover, including multiple layers of forest structure obtained by growing different trees of various heights. Inspections also look for the presence of epiphytes (plants that grow on trees, like some orchids and ferns), which are considered indicators of biodiversity and forest health. 

Our partners at the Asociación Barillense de Agricultores (ASOBAGRI) cooperative in Guatemala, the Café Orgánico Marcala Sociedad Anónima (COMSA) cooperative in Honduras, and the CAC Pangoa cooperative in Peru all hold SMBC Bird Friendly® certification.

By intentionally cultivating land under strict SMBC standards, our partners have created living agricultural ecosystems that prove our delicious shade-grown, certified organic, Fair Trade coffees can thrive in harmony with a bustling avian sanctuary. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Is All Shade-Grown Coffee Bird Friendly® Certified?

No, shade-grown coffee is not certified Bird Friendly®. "Shade-grown" simply describes coffee grown in some shade; it has no strict legal definition. "Bird Friendly® certified" means it’s certified to ensure the structural and species diversity of trees and other criteria that support migratory and resident bird populations.  

How Do I Know if My Coffee Is Bird Friendly?

Look for the official Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) Bird Friendly® seal on the bag to ensure it’s been independently verified. Then you’ll know the farms support the forest structure and biodiversity that birds depend on.   

Shop Bird Friendly® Certified Coffee From Cooperatives That Care

When you brew a cup of SMBC-certified Bird Friendly® coffee, you're supporting a healthy environment and farming systems that protect our avian friends. 

From the thriving agroforests of the ASOBAGRI cooperative in Guatemala to our reforestation partnership at the CAC Pangoa cooperative in Peru, every bean represents a conscious choice to steward the land, protect biodiversity, respect the farmers and their communities, and honor the delicate migratory flyways and habitats that birds depend upon. 

It’s a beautifully simple connection: a healthier environment for the birds and the people living around the farms, and a delicious cup for all of us. 

If you’re ready to make your morning brew fly higher, explore our certified organic, Fair Trade, SMBC-certified Bird Friendly® coffee.