Kari Gabriel, Montana Bird Lady

Kari Gabriel – Photo Credit: Sue Hagen

The Montana Bird Lady, Kari Gabriel, will be the featured speaker at the Monday, February 12 meeting, 7-9 PM at the Gateway West Community Room, US Highway 2 West, Kalispell.

Kari Gabriel has been working as a raptor educator, trainer and rehabilitator since 1991, following a life-long dream of working hands-on with animals. She got her start working with bald eagles at the Alaska Raptor Center, in Sitka, Alaska, and traveled North America with an imprinted Bald Eagle, named Buddy, until relocating to Kalispell in 1997.

In 2015, Kari obtained her own federal permits to do raptor education programming, and founded “Montana Bird Lady,” a raptor education and conservation organization. She has trained three permanently disabled raptors as education ambassadors, and is also permitted for raptor rehabilitation through the FWP’s Montana WILD education & rehabilitation facility located in Helena.

She has a male Prairie Falcon named “Jack,” a female Rough-Legged Hawk named “Hawkeye,” and a female Northern Saw-whet owl named “Tink,” on her state and federal permits. Gabriel uses live raptors to provide education and wildlife art programming to schools and the public, to instill a sense of respect and admiration for raptors, and to promote raptor conservation and habitat preservation. Her work is mostly self-funded, and supplemented with program fees and private donations.

Kari supports her “raptor habit,” by working in marketing and communications for Professional Therapy Associates, and as a 4th term city councilor for the city of Kalispell.