A new study found high biodiversity on traditional coffee farms. By Brian Clark Howard National Geographic February 4, 2015 Birds such as the blue-breasted bee-eater can be found on Ethiopia's shade coffee farms. PHOTOGRAPH BY CAGAN SEKERCIOGLU, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE Shady coffee plantations in Ethiopia , where coffee has been grown for at least a thousand years, hold more bird species than any other coffee farms in the world, new research shows. The research suggests that traditional cultivation practices there support better bird biodiversity than any other coffee farms in the world. In Ethiopia, coffee is traditionally grown on plantations shaded by native trees. These farms boasted more than 2.5 times as many bird species as adjacent mountain forest, according to a study slated for publication February 11 in the journal Biological Conservation . "That was a surprise," says study co-author Cagan H. Se...