After living in Sydney for a period, Bird’s tertiary education began as a mature age student at the University of Western Australia (UWA) in the 1970s.
She began teaching at UWA in 1980 and also taught literature at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT; later Curtin University).
In 1985, Bird joined the faculty of Arts at UWA, where she was a member of the English Department as well as director of the Centre for Women’s Studies until her retirement in 2003.
In 2011, Bird was the recipient of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature’s A.A Philips award for her long period of excellence in the editing of Westerly.
Bird was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours in recognition of her "significant service to higher education, and to gender studies and literature".