Born on Canada’s west coast, Kiirsti spent her childhood frolicking in the coastal rainforest. She got her first step into a career with birds searching for Canada Warblers in Northern Alberta, and then went on to work on various bird research projects across Canada, and in Jamaica and Costa Rica. Kiirsti completed her Master of Science degree at the University of Windsor with research in Costa Rica looking at bird community recovery in regenerating tropical dry forests. She also did some research on Rufous-and-White Wrens – ask her to do her best imitation of these birds! She is currently finishing up her PhD at the Universities of New Brunswick and Acadia where she is studying how wetland birds use human-made landscapes in Atlantic Canada.
Kiirsti loves volunteering and sharing her love of birds and ecology. She is the current Vice-President of WildResearch, a Vancouver-based non-profit that trains and educates community members to contribute to conservation science. She also regularly volunteers with Skype-a-Scientist, Big Brother Big Sister, and Letters to a Pre-Scientist, and she recently joined the eBird New Brunswick review team.
Kiirsti now lives in New Brunswick with her best birding buddies: Colin, her husband, and Pipit, her 2-year-old rescue pup. Her cat, Radish, also loves watching birds (but always from behind a window!). Sometimes she puts down her binoculars to read, make
crafts, curl, swing-dance, or play Wingspan (and she had a Wingspan-themed cake for her wedding!).
