Browns Creek Community Event/Bird Festival 2025

Celebrate birds, community, and conservation at the Browns Creek Community Event / Bird Festival, happening Saturday, September 20, 2025, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Browns Creek Park, Stillwater. This free, family-friendly event welcomes everyone to enjoy nature-based exhibits, hands-on activities, and awe-inspiring encounters with live raptors—including a Bald Eagle—thanks to The Raptor Center.

Hosted by Browns Creek Watershed District in partnership with Bird City Stillwater, a project of Sustainable Stillwater MN, this year’s festival theme is “Shared Spaces: Creating Bird-Friendly Cities and Communities” in celebration of World Migratory Bird Day. This theme highlights how thoughtful urban design—like reducing light pollution, restoring native habitat, keeping cats indoors or on a leash, and preventing window collisions—creates safer environments for both birds and people.

Why Birds? Why Now?

Birds are more than beautiful backyard visitors—they’re indicators of ecosystem health. Climate change, habitat loss, and pollution threaten their survival and ours. By protecting birds, we’re also addressing the broader climate crisis. Through Bird City Stillwater, Sustainable Stillwater MN promotes simple, impactful actions our community can take to make Stillwater a more sustainable, resilient place for all life.

What to Expect:

• Interactive booths from local environmental groups, including Tropical Wings, St. Croix Valley Bird Club, Sally Manzara Interpretive Nature Center, and others

• Educational displays on habitat restoration, bird-safe building design, and more

• Kids’ nature activities and crafts

• Live raptor presentations

• Bird Costume Contest with prizes for adults and kids—everyone in costume gets a treat!

Whether you're a seasoned birder or just bird-curious, there’s something for everyone. Come learn, explore, and take flight toward a more bird-friendly Stillwater!

Meet Some of Our Exhibitors:

Tropical Wings is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that works in the St. Croix Watershed of MN and WI, and the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. The focus of Tropical Wings is the welfare of migratory birds shared between the Upper Midwest and Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. As a shared resource, these birds play a vital role in the web of life and depend on quality habitat along and at both ends of their migration to thrive. Tropical Wings is committed to engaging citizens in celebrating and sustaining this natural phenomenon through education and habitat preservation both in Costa Rica and the Upper Midwest.

The St. Croix Valley Bird Club’s mission is “To share our love of birds with others!” We bring together birders who wish to enhance and share their knowledge and enjoyment of birds, while supporting habitat conservation. Members hone their birding skills with the support and camaraderie of other enthusiasts.

Founded in 2018, the Sally Manzara Interpretive Nature Center is located at Lake Elmo’s Sunfish Lake Park. Our facility houses a range of beautifully crafted interactive exhibits geared towards both children and adults. We offer a range of programming, from summer camps to our adult education series, Nature for Life. We’re open to the public seven days a week, all year round. For more information, visit our website at https://sminc-lake-elmo.org/ or call 651-408-2838.