In this article we estimate the recreational use value of household trips to view shorebirds during the annual horseshoe crab/shorebird migration on the Delaware Bay. We use contingent valuation to estimate the value of day and overnight trips separately and use a discrete choice question followed by a payment-card question to generate our valuation data. Our best estimates for the value of a day trip are about $66–$90/household and for an overnight trip about $200–$425/household (2008$). Our data are from the 2008 season, and our average household size is 1.66. For some context, estimates from four other studies report values that vary from $63/trip/person to $442/trip/person. These studies vary in method and specific birding populations studied and mix day and overnight trips.

JEL Classification Codes: Q5