Houston home to International Festival of Owls this weekend

What started out as a hatch day celebration for an owl in a small town in southeastern Minnesota has grown to now world-wide interest and participation.  

March 7-9 is the International Festival of Owls in Houston, Minnesota. There are activities, presentations, displays, and events that focus on all things owl related for all ages and interest levels. 

They range from kid’s crafts to presentations from researchers from Colorado and Nepal who are discussing their efforts to learn more about the lives of owls.  

The activities during the festival bring in crowds that more than double the size of Houston, which has just under 1,000 residents.  

Karla Bloem, the Executive Director of the International Owl Center, when asked what makes owls so fascinating, said that the answer she likes best is from a cultural survey on owls from Central America. 

“Owls enchant the night. And I think that kind of hits it, because we don’t really experience them directly, mostly we’re just hearing them, and they’re a part of this kind of, you know, really nebulous thing at night. So, they’re just fascinating. But they’re a very special part of our world around us that we rarely get to experience them directly,” she said. 

Live owls are a central part of the weekend. Presentations are planned for all three days, either at the International Owl Center or at Houston High School. 

The festival’s website has a complete list of events-click here to view them. 

Owls are not just featured at the center or school for one weekend. The entire city of Houston has embraced them. There are posters showing kids’ artwork from around the world, owl sculptures, and even an owl-shaped pizza at the place down the street from the center.  

75-100 volunteers help make the festival possible with more assisting with events like the pancake breakfast.  

And the owl theme continues to grow. The center currently resides in a historic building along the main road through Houston. Plans have been in the works for the past few years to build a new, larger facility a few blocks away.  

It would feature more aviaries that can be used for owls from different climates, such as cold weather species like snowy owls. 

The biggest difference is something that’s going to be unique to the U.S.-walk-through aviaries where “you literally are walking through the side of the aviary and you’re looking through this huge viewing window where there’s literally nothing there between you and the owls and they’re free living in these large aviaries that have natural vegetation but they’re very specifically designed using the owl’s natural instincts so they won’t want to come where people are.” The concept was pioneered in Germany, Bloem said. They’re working with the person who pioneered the design to bring it here.  

Bloem said they’re in the capital campaign part raising the money to build the new facility that has a price tag of $17 million.  

She said there are approximately 250 different species of owls in the world.  

About a dozen make stops in Minnesota or in Wisconsin.  

They include the Great Horned, Barred, Eastern Screech Owls, Saw-Whet, Long or Short Eared Owls, and one of the most popular, the snowy owl.