Smithsonian National Zoo’s New Bird House Highlights Migratory Birds’ Incredible Journeys

The final aviary presents a bird-friendly coffee farm in Central America, complete with actual coffee plants, palms, and a babbling brook within a two-story skylit room. Bright green parakeets nibble on delicious-looking salads in elevated trays, while cedar waxwings, Baltimore orioles, red-eyed vireos, and other colorful songbirds fly freely through the trees. The squawking flock demonstrates how agricultural sites can provide supportive habitats for North America’s backyard birds and other animals (and how caffeine fans can help them by buying bird-friendly, shade-grown coffee).