Natural history
Nature of the Blue Mountains
The forests, birds, butterflies and plants that share Jamaica's Blue Mountains with the coffee farms.
Large areas of the Blue Mountains are still forested, and much of that forest is protected within the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Coffee farms sit on the slopes below and among these forests, often under shade trees, and the same mountains are home to birds and butterflies found nowhere else.
The entries in this section describe that natural setting and why it matters for the coffee: shade and soil, mist and cloud forest, and the species that make the area worth protecting.
Natural history
- Birds of the Blue MountainsA guide to the Blue Mountains' endemic birds, including the tody, doctor bird, Jamaican blackbird and crested quail-dove, and where to see them.
- Plants of the Blue MountainsJamaica's Blue Mountains hold orchids, bromeliads and endemic conifers, plus the blue mahoe, the national tree, and one documented invasive species.
- Shade Trees on Blue Mountain Coffee FarmsWhat is documented, and what is not, about shade trees on Jamaica's Blue Mountain coffee farms, and why shade coffee matters for birds and forest.
- The Blue Mountains Cloud ForestThe Blue Mountains' misted, epiphyte-covered cloud forest, its elevation and protection, and how it borders the coffee farms on the slopes below it.
- The Homerus SwallowtailPapilio homerus, the Homerus swallowtail, is the Western Hemisphere's largest butterfly and survives only in two or three small Jamaican populations.