Biodiversity Benefits of Birdwatching Using Citizen Science Data and Individualized Recreational Demand Models

Birding is one of the most popular recreational activities, but bird populations have been declining worldwide. Understanding how much people benefit from local bird populations levels, species richness and their preferences can help inform bird conservation management. This paper uses eBird data and random utility models to assess the birders' preferences and welfare for trips to local areas. The sample eBird citizen science data includes 35,656 trips by 290 individual birders to 1227 unique birding hotspots in Alberta, Canada. The economic value of seeing one additional bird species during a trip is estimated to be $0.68 on average. We estimated a nonlinear relationship between the utility and number of bird species suggesting satiation in recreation preferences, and the highest MWTP is estimated to be in the summer and fall seasons. Bird species at risk, based on Alberta's strategy for the management of species at risk, are valued almost ten times higher as seeing other types of bird species. We also estimate individualized choice models and find that preference for species richness is heterogeneous across birders. Results of a combinatorial test find that the individualized choice models produce average welfare estimates that are 67% higher than the single model but the difference is not statistically significant. The members of eBird represent a convenience sample that may not constitute the general population. Thus along with proper weighting, these benefit estimates produced in this research can help inform future bird conservation management decisions including alternative funding mechanisms.