[SEMCO] Announcing Cape Cod Bird Club April 8 Program and Meeting

[Diane Silverstein]

Press release - for immediate release 4/3/13
Contact: Diane Silverstein  508-364-7050
Cape Cod Bird Club
Program and Meeting   April 8, 2013  7:30pm
Cape Cod Museum of Natural History
Route 6A
Brewster, MA




April 8, 2013
7:30pm

Dr. Andrew Vitz - "A Cup in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush - The Role of Shade Coffee in Migratory Bird Conservation"Dr. Andrew Vitz, newly appointed Massachusetts State Ornithologist, will share his extensive research on the conservation value of shade coffee plantations to Cerulean Warblers and other song birds.Are you drinking shade grown coffee? Does it matter one way or the other? Many of our favorite neotropical migrant birds, like warblers, tanagers, and thrushes, winter in the coffee growing regions of Central and South America, where habitat loss has been linked with range-wide population declines in some species. A conversion from traditional shade-grown coffee plantations that maintain some component of the natural tree canopy, to treeless monocultures of sun-grown coffee has concerned bird conservationists for years. So how can we coffee-drinking birders help? Dr. Vitz and his wife spent 4 winters in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in Venezuela evaluating the habitat quality of shade coffee plantations to overwintering Cerulean Warblers and other neotropical migrants.  He will be talking generally about the benefits of shade coffee plantations to birds and sharing the results and experiences from their study in Venezuela.
Dr. Vitz grew up outside of Cincinnati, Ohio and became interested in birds as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  After taking a course in ornithology and spending a semester abroad in South America, he knew he wanted to spend a career working with birds.  Not only was he amazed by avian biodiversity, but he also recognized that birds, for a variety of reasons, were a good taxonomic group to focus on biological conservation.  After graduating from Wisconsin he spent 4 years as a seasonal avian biologist, working with birds throughout the hemisphere.  He completed M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at the Ohio State University studying the post-fledging ecology of mature forest birds and was also involved in a project working with birds in shade coffee plantations, which is the focus of this talk.  Before becoming the State Ornithologist for Massachusetts last year, he spent 4 years managing the field ornithology program at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pennsylvania.
Be the first to buy your Cape Cod Bird Festival T-shirt at the April meeting for only $20!



Diane Silverstein

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