International wildfowl carving championships will be part of the 20^th East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival and North Carolina Decoy Carving Championships in Washington next month.

“We again expect birds coming in from all over the country, especially this year because we are hosting several international competitions. So, we do expect that we’ll get birds not only from the United States but beyond Canada as well,” Lynn Wingate, Washington’s tourism-development director, told the City Council during its meeting Monday.

The Washington Tourism Development Authority manages the festival, with the East Carolina Wildfowl Guild managing the decoy-carving contests.

The International Wildfowl Carvers Association’s 2015 Style Shorebird and Working Decoy Championships take place Feb. 7 as part of the festival weekend, Feb. 6-8. The IWCA competitions  — which include open, intermediate and novice categories —also include the following: decorative life-size wildfowl (floating), Tom Gardner Memorial Award (intermediate), decorative life-size wildfowl (nonfloating), decorative miniature, Pamlico gunning decoy and Tri-County Telephone canvas gunning decoy.

The East Carolina Wildfowl Guild sponsors the following competitions: North Carolina Decoy Carving Championship division, decorative-head carving division, Pamlico River gunning pairs, Tar River Annual Decoy Event, O’Neal’s Drug Store Carolina gunning decoy division, contemporary antique decoy division and the North Carolina songbird division.

The carving competitions will occur at the Peterson Building adjacent to the Washington Civic Center.

A little more than $8,000 in prize money could be distributed, including the $1,000 purchase award that goes to the winner of the North Carolina Decoy Carving Championship. The harlequin drake is the competition bird in that contest.

First-in-show prize monies range from $1,000 to $100, depending upon division.

The city’s tourism website — www.littlewashingtonnc.com — has a link to the festival’s website. (Click on the “Arts and Culture” icon, then scroll down that page to the “East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival” link and click on it.) Another option is to simply visit www.ecwaf.comto access the festival’s website. Both options provide links to details of the carving contests.