Dr. Birgita Hansen
Principal Research Fellow, Food Agility CRC Constellation Leader
Campus
Biography
Birgita is leading CeRDI research and partner projects in environmental science and natural resource management. She has extensive experience in ecology, environmental management and citizen science, with a strong focus on understanding the ecological response of birds to modification of their habitat. This has included studies of woodland birds in agricultural landscapes, and waterbird and shorebird conservation, management and monitoring at local and continental scales.
Birgita contributes to the management of CeRDI’s digital agricultural programs, bringing a complementary perspective to achieving ecological outcomes on private land. She leads a national-scale citizen science monitoring program called The Latham’s Snipe Project, and is a member of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership Technical Advisory Group and the BirdLife Australia Research and Conservation Committee. She is also Chair of the Australasian Wader Studies Group. Birgita leads the CeRDI research team and represents the Centre on the Graduate Research School Board.
Fields of research
- Environmental management
- Ecology
- Information systems
More about Birgita
Qualifications
- PhD, Monash University
Areas of expertise
- Waterbird and shorebird conservation and management
- Avian movement ecology
- Woodland bird ecology
- Wetland restoration and protection
- Ramsar wetlands
- Citizen science
- Renewable energy impacts on bird life
- Riparian restoration
- Biodiversity conservation in production landscapes
Grants
- Hansen, B. 2025–2026. Renewable Environmental Research Initiative: Onshore species-specific research and guidance to support onshore renewable energy industries. DCCEEW ($225,600)
- Hansen, N. 2025–2030. Building Ecosystem Resilience: A Tasmanian Model for Renewal at Silver Plains. Ian Potter Foundation / Tasmanian Land Conservancy. ($197,600)
- Thompson, H. Hansen, B. Collaborative eResearch in Agriculture: A partnership to developer digital tools to enhance precision agriculture services. 2025–2027. Precision Agriculture. ($1,032,000)
Current
- PhD student, Federation University, ‘The impact of macro-litter on birdlife in the Greater Melbourne and Port Phillip Region', primary supervisor.
- Master's student, Federation University, ‘Ecology of Latham's Snipe in central Tasmania’, primary supervisor.
- Master's student, Federation University, ‘Wind Assistance During Long-Distance Migration by Latham’s Snipe’, co-supervisor.
- PhD student, Federation University, ‘Soil health and carbon management levers for farming systems optimisation’, co-supervisor.
- PhD student, Federation University, ‘Decision support to achieve net zero carbon for land managers and enterprise managers’, co-supervisor.
- PhD student, Federation University, ‘Exploring the impacts of population shifts, increased urbanisation and seasonal variation on coastal communities and ecosystems’, co-supervisor.
Specialist roles
- Federation University Animal Ethics Committee
- Graduate Research School Board
Professional association memberships
- East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership Technical Advisory Group
- BirdLife Australia Research and Conservation Committee
- Australasian Wader Studies Group
- IUCN Species Survival Commission Woodcock and Snipe Specialist Group
- International Wader Study Group Executive Committee
- Lindsey, A., Hansen, B. (2026) Latham’s Snipe in the Hunter Region: an overview. The Whistler 20, 1-8. https://www.hboc.org.au/the-whistler-volume-20/
- Hansen, B. (2021) This bird’s stamina is remarkable: it flies non-stop for 5 days from Japan to Australia, but now its habitat is under threat. The Conversation. 30 Aug 2021 https://theconversation.com/this-birds-stamina-is-remarkable-it-flies-non-stop-for-5-days-from-japan-to-australia-but-now-its-habitat-is-under-threat-165964
Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI)
- Publications