Dr. Licia Calabrese is an independent researcher and consultant currently working in the Middle East on seabirds and landbirds at the Al Wajh Lagoon Important Bird Area. As Senior Bird Manager, she coordinates all scientific and operational programmes on birds within the Al Wajh Special Economic Zone.

She holds a Master’s degree in Nature Conservation, with a thesis on the behaviour of the Seychelles Magpie-robin, and a PhD from Pierre et Marie Curie University on the abundance, distribution, and foraging ecology of two species of shearwaters breeding in Seychelles. During her doctoral research, she collaborated with Vincent Bretagnolle at CNRS Chizé and with Gérard Rocamora in Seychelles.

Dr. Calabrese has over 11 years of field experience with seabirds and island ecosystems, predominantly in Seychelles, where she served as Conservation and Science Officer at the Island Conservation Society—first on the inner islands (Aride Island Nature Reserve) and later on the outer islands (Farquhar Atoll). She has also worked with BirdLife Italy on marine and terrestrial birds, gaining extensive experience across diverse ecosystems and habitats.

Her expertise spans habitat enhancement and conservation, spatial planning, population trend analysis, habitat selection studies, and bird telemetry using geolocators, GPS, archival tags, and Argos satellite tags. She has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed publications and is fluent in Italian, English, French, and Seychellois Creole.