Wild bird conservation in the UK is a widely regarded as a success story. The populations of many endangered species have grown or at least stabilised, birds that were last seen in the UK over 100 years ago have been successfully re-introduced, and bird watching makes an increasingly important contribution to the rural economy in terms of employment and income. Nevertheless, some wild birds also generate costs and some deep rooted conflicts persist with other rural activities such as farming and game shooting. This paper describes a conceptual framework for understanding the costs and benefits of wild birds and, using wild goose conservation in the island of Islay as a case study, explores whether continued public investment in wild goose conservation is worthwhile from an economic perspective. The paper concludes with a discussion about future options for integrating wild bird conservation with sustainable rural development.