Join BirdLife Australia for a special three-part seabird webinar series celebrating global environmental awareness days and showcasing how science and conservation are helping protect seabirds across Australia and beyond.
From restoring breeding habitats on remote islands to tracking seabirds to understand their marine habitats, this series brings together leading conservation practitioners and researchers working to secure a future for seabirds.
Each webinar explores a distinct theme while contributing to a broader narrative—understanding seabirds, restoring their breeding habitats, protecting marine environments, strengthening collaboration, and turning knowledge into action.
Please note: places for this webinar are limited, so register early to secure your spot.
19 June World Albatross Day Theme: Habitat Restoration Speakers:
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3 July World Seabird Day Theme: Working across borders: Connecting People and Seabirds Speakers:
28 July World Nature Conservation Day Using Scientific Data to Protect Seabirds Speakers:
Explore seabird breeding habitat restoration projects helping recover threatened seabird populations and hear how large-scale habitat restoration can transform breeding success of Wandering, Light-mantled and Black-browed Albatrosses. Host: Tanya Loos, Avian Influenza Response Coordinator, BirdLife Australia
Date: 19 June 2026 Duration: 1 hr Time: 6pm AEST – Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney 5:30pm ACST – Adelaide, Darwin 4.00pm AWST – Perth
Mr Keith Springer has led a diverse career including 20 years as a forest and national park ranger with the NZ Forest Service and then the Department of Conservation, has worked in Antarctica for Antarctica New Zealand, and on expedition ships to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands as a naturalist and zodiac driver. Islands have featured largely in Keith’s life, including a year spent on Raoul Island in the Kermadec group, over three years on Macquarie Island and various stints on South Georgia, Lord Howe Island and Antipodes Island. He’s also spent a winter and several summer seasons at Scott Base in Antarctica. Much of his island work has centred on the eradication of introduced pests and a strong motivator for pest control is seeing the results in flourishing wildlife and vegetation when pests are removed. Keith is based in Glenorchy, New Zealand, where he lives with his partner, Angela and their three pest-detection dogs.
Dr Yuna Kim is Seabird Project Coordinator at BirdLife Australia, where she leads work to strengthen seabird conservation through science, partnerships and public engagement. Her work focuses on seabird monitoring, habitat restoration and international collaboration, with a particular interest in connecting local conservation action in Australia to broader flyway and ocean-scale efforts. Yuna has been closely involved in planning for seabird habitat restoration on Gabo Island and works across projects that support the protection of breeding colonies, improve conservation knowledge, and raise awareness of threats facing seabirds in Australia and beyond. She also serves as an East Asian–Australasian Flyway liaison officer for the Australasian Seabird Group, helping build connections across researchers, practitioners and policy processes.
Seabirds spend most of their lives at sea, often out of sight and out of mind. Yet their conservation depends on collaboration across borders. From seabird recovery efforts in South Australia to flyway-scale initiatives across the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, this webinar highlights the people and partnerships protecting seabirds worldwide. Host: Dr Golo Maurer, Director Bird Conservation Strategy, Streategy & Governance, BirdLife Australia
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
Duration: 1.5 hrs Date: 3 July 2026 Time: 6pm AEST – Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney 5:30pm ACST – Adelaide, Darwin 4.00pm AWST – Perth
REGISTER HERE Speakers:
Kerri Bartley is a Conservation advocate and Field Ecologist and is the Coorong Beach-nesting Birds coordinator at BirdLife Australia. Kerri works closely with Traditional Owners, the Ramindjeri and Ngarrindjeri People, to co-deliver the ‘Protecting Critical Habitat of Beach-nesting Shorebirds and Seabirds in the Coorong’. Kerri completed her BSc in Biodiversity and Conservation at Flinders University in 2008 and has worked in the coastal conservation space in South Australia for over two decades. She is passionate about making a difference by advocating to Governments to increase protection for threatened seabirds and shorebirds.
Dr Bethany Clark is a Senior Seabird Science Officer, BirdLife International, UK. She manages the Seabird Tracking Database and analyses data for seabird conservation. Her work focusses on identifying important areas for seabirds and assessing threats such as fisheries, offshore wind energy, plastics and invasive species. Beth projects involve mapping seabird distributions from tracking data and other information, including developing analytic methods using R code. Mapping seabird sensitivity to offshore wind energy development for Australia and beyond.
Mr Simba Chan is an associated researcher to both Japan Bird Research Association and Wild Bird Society of Japan. Based in Tokyo, he is the Chair of the EAAFP Avian Disease Working Group and Coordinators of the EAAFP Crane Working Group and ad hoc Migratory Landbird Committee. He also serves Chair of the Pacific Seabird Group East Asia Seabird Conservation Committee. Mr Chan formerly worked for BirdLife International Asia Division on Red Data Book and Important Bird Area in Asia and has been engaged in conservation of the following endangered species: Black-faced Spoonbill, all crane species in eastern Asia, Oriental Stork, Chinese Crested Tern, and Yellow-breasted Bunting.
Robb Kaler is a Wildlife Biologist and leads the Seabird Program with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Migratory Bird Program based in Anchorage, Alaska. In addition to chairing the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership’s Seabird Working Group, Robb leads several marine bird research and monitoring projects in Alaska and chairs the Pacific Seabird Group’s Seabird Monitoring Committee.
Discover how BirdLife Australia and our partners translate seabird science into practical conservation outcomes on land and at sea.
Host: Dr Grainne Maguire, Director Coastal and Wetland Birds, Conservation & Science, BirdLife Australia
Duration: 1 hr Date: 28 July 2026 Time: 6pm AEST – Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney 5:30pm ACST – Adelaide, Darwin 4.00pm AWST – Perth
Dr Sonia Sánchez is a conservation scientist and Project Coordinator with BirdLife Australia’s Coastal and Wetland Birds Team. She did her PhD at Monash University researching Little Penguin’s feeding hotspots and links to environmental conditions. Her work at BirdLife Australia focuses on turning ecological data into practical conservation outcomes, with interests in seabird and shorebird monitoring, data analysis and stakeholder coordination. She is currently co-leading the development of the Australian Seabird Breeding Colony Data Register, bringing together seabird records from across Australia to support research, monitoring and conservation decision-making.
Dr Anna McCallum coordinates the Key Biodiversity Area Program at BirdLife Australia. Her focus is to identify these critical places according to the global standard (IUCN, 2016) and ensure they are well managed and protected for the wildlife that depends on them. This involves collaboration with scientists, managers, and volunteers. Whilst Australian breeding islands for seabirds are recognised as KBAs, the important offshore marine areas that these birds depend on for feeding have not yet been nominated. BirdLife Australia has ambitions for a comprehensive network of marine KBAs that can help support Australia’s 30×30 marine protection targets.
Dr Lily Bentley is a movement ecologist and Research Fellow at University of Queensland (UQ). She is interested in how and where highly mobile predators travel, what their journeys can teach us about their evolutionary histories, and how to translate research findings into effective conservation policies. At UQ, where she is currently Deputy Director (Advancement) at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, she uses animal tracking data and global syntheses to understand migratory connectivity in the oceans. She received her BSc (Hons) from the University of Queensland, studying the thermal physiology and behaviour of wild saltwater crocodiles. In her PhD, at the University of Cambridge, she investigated the foraging ecology of albatrosses and petrels across the Southern Ocean.
