Coffee in Latin America traditionally was grown under tall forest trees. Shade for the coffee also provides shade and essential habitat for forest birds that fly south for the winter.

To increase production, growers developed coffee plants that can be grown in full sun, with the help of pesticides. Hundreds of thousands of acres of shade-grown coffee plantations have been bulldozed, replacing complex forest ecosystems with monocultures unfriendly to birds.

Even among birders, he said, there's a low level awareness of the coffee-songbird connection.