Bird-distracted, author, connector & curiousity-sparker
THEIR STORY
Holly Parsons is Manager of Priority Sites at BirdLife Australia, looking after the organisation’s Urban Birds and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) programs. Her role is all about connecting people with the places that matter most for birds, from bustling cities to globally significant landscapes. A passionate science communicator, she works with schools, citizen scientists, community, land managers, and government to bring people closer to the birds that live alongside them. Her work spans strategy, education, and conservation, always with making science approachable and showing that protecting biodiversity starts right where people live and work.
Alongside her program work, Holly is often found in the media talking about urban birds and conservation, from radio interviews to public events, helping audiences see the wonder in bird neighbours. Holly is also co-author of This Bird, a children’s book that encourages readers to slow down and notice the birds around them.
Whether it’s through storytelling, advocacy, or community partnerships, Holly’s goal is to inspire curiosity, connection, and action for Australia’s birdlife.
What is one bird encounter you will never forget?
I’ll never forget being part of a banding session at Barren Grounds Nature Reserve when I was doing my science degree at uni. We were waiting for Eastern Ground Parrots, a species I embarrassingly knew little about beyond “threatened” and “a bit like an oversized budgie.” That dusk we caught five.
Watching them handled so carefully, and then releasing one myself, was unforgettable. I said, “Only five birds, that’s a shame,” and one of the banders looked at me like I had grown two heads and replied, “Oh no, we’ve never caught that many before, this is brilliant!” That moment completely reshaped how I thought about rarity and conservation.
You’ve got a golden ticket to go anywhere in the world to see a bird? Where would you go and why?
I'm torn between Antarctica and the Galápagos! Antarctica because, well, penguins! Iconic, and thriving in one of the most extreme environments on Earth. Or the Galápagos, to be surrounded by birds that defined how we understand evolution: Flightless cormorants, Galápagos hawks, Darwin’s finches. I mean, extraordinary.
Both places are so far removed from daily life that you’d have no choice but to be fully present, immersed in nature and birds. I can think of nothing better.
How is birding part of your life today?
Birds are my work and my everyday. As Manager Priority Sites with BirdLife Australia, I’m actually usually behind a screen rather than in the field, but my job is all about birds: telling their stories, connecting people to them, and helping communities, land managers and individuals take action. Beyond work, birds sneak into daily life everywhere.
The corellas screeching and playing in the woodland that I see on the school run everyday, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos pulling me away from my desk when I hear them flying over (and crossing everything that they land in my Banksias), a Black-shouldered Kite that is usually hovering next to the expressway near my house, Superb Fairy-wrens distracting me at the beach as the family is going to Illawarra Hawks games.
I even co-authored This Bird with author and illustrator Astred Hicks, a kids’ book about noticing the birds around you, because once you start, you realise you’re never really not birding.
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