This is the first time scientists have assigned a monetary value to the pest-control benefits rainforest birds can provide to agriculture. Their study could provide the framework for pest management that helps both farmers and biodiversity. By Bjorn Carey Stanford Report September 3, 2013 The yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia) is a pest-eating bird that frequents coffee plantations. PHOTO: Courtesy of Stanford Report In recent years, Stanford biologists have found that coffee growers in Costa Rica bolster bird biodiversity by leaving patches of their plantations as untouched rainforest. The latest finding from these researchers suggests that the birds are returning the favor to farmers by eating an aggressive coffee bean pest, the borer beetle, thereby improving coffee bean yields by hundreds of dollars per hectare. The study is the first to put a monetary value on the pest-control benefits rainforest can provide to agriculture, which the rese...