The Wonderful Wood Thrush

The Wood Thrush has one of the most beautiful songs of any North American bird.

Thoreau wrote of it: “Whenever a man hears it he is young, and Nature is in her spring; wherever he hears it, it is a new world and a free country, and the gates of heaven are not shut against him.”

Wood Thrush is one of the four ‘icon-roasts’ of  Birds & Beans Coffee and we roast it as a Breakfast coffee. Our Wood Thrush disappear in late summer and we will not hear their chorus again for 6-7 months!  The Wood Thrush, like many of our songbirds spend more time in Central or South America than they do in the United States – so whose birds are they really? Wood Thrush are just as much at home in a tropical Rainforest in Nicaragua, living alongside spider monkeys, ocelots and toucans as they are flitting among the branches of our oaks and maples; after all, Wood Thrush spend over half their year in the tropics. Everywhere we go to promote Bird Friendly® coffee, people tell us they hear and see fewer Wood Thrush than in days gone by. In fact, since the Breeding Bird Survey’s organized by the US Fish and Wildlife service began in the late 1960’s Wood Thrush populations along the BBS routes have dropped by an astonishing 50%. Part of this is due to loss of forest in coastal North America, some because of cowbird nest ‘stealing’ and there are other factors. But a major reason behind Wood Thrush decline is undoubtedly the loss of habitat in the wintering grounds. The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has been working for over 15 years to certify classic coffee farms, ‘rustic canopy’ environments as ‘Bird Friendly®’. This allows coffee and bird lovers to be sure the coffee in their cup is helping protect key habitat.

Birds & Beans® is the only coffee brand in the entire country which solely roasts ‘Bird Friendly®’ certified beans. We roast and sell Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center certified coffee. Three of our roasts are Fair-Trade, the fourth is Rainforest Alliance and all four are USDA Organic certified. Great for birds, people, the Earth. Great tasting coffee too.