Holly Parsons

Holly is Co-Manager of BirdLife Australia’s Birds in Backyards Program. She has always had an interest in birds and ecology which led her to the field of avian urban ecology (basically how birds live in towns and cities). Holly completed her PhD looking at the impact of urbanisation on Superb Fairy-wrens and, while she still loves doing ecological research, she has moved into the environmental education field by managing Birds in Backyards. This rather unique position allows her to have a foot in both camps – she still has involvement in scientific research through various Birds in Backyards projects as well as with the invaluable database of surveys Birds in Backyards members contribute, but she also gets to use birds as a way of communicating the importance of biodiversity to the broader community. It is a role that she is passionate about and she is keen to keep making Birds in Backyards bigger and better.