Birds are valuable: the case of vagrants

ABSTRACT

Biodiversity values need to be appropriately quantified and thence incorporated in future land development decisions. We assessed the economic and conservation-fundraising potential of vagrant Aleutian Terns in New South Wales, Australia. We found that an estimated 375–581 birdwatchers travelled far (580 ± 522 km [mean ± SD]) and reacted quickly (22% of visits were within the first week and 47% within the first two weeks) to see Aleutian Terns in an area where they had never been seen. We estimated that the total expenditure of these birdwatchers ranged from ∼ $199,000–$363,000 AUD and we further estimated that birdwatchers would have been cumulatively willing to donate upwards of $30,000 AUD to a non-governmental conservation organisation in order to have viewed the terns. These results suggest that birdwatchers highly value vagrant birdwatching and conservation campaign potential should be explored in future long-staying vagrant bird occurrences.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecosystem value
• birdwatching
• vagrant birds
• ecological economics

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all of the participants who contributed to this study and participated in the survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Corey T. Callaghan http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0415-2709