“On the hottest day Penrith ever had, the fairy-wrens queued at my dripping tap for one sip at a time.” — Why a seventy-one-year-old Western Sydney florist is letting her last 64 leaf bird baths go at a special price, before another summer leaves the fairy-wrens with nothing to drink.

At half past five, before the heat comes up off the road, Coral Treloar walks out to the mulberry tree in her backyard with the garden hose. She fills a copper-coloured leaf that stands on a thin iron stake under the branches.

By the time she has turned the tap off, the first fairy-wren is in it. A little blue male. Then two brown ones. They splash so hard that Coral has to top it up again.

“They don’t wait for me. They wait for the sound of the hose.”

Coral is 71. She has lived in the same brick house in Emu Plains, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, for 46 years. For 34 of them she ran a little flower shop in Penrith. Her father planted the mulberry tree out the back in 1964.

For the last five summers, she has made bird baths shaped from that tree’s leaves. This year, she has made her last ones.

The afternoon the fairy-wrens queued at her tap

On 4 January 2020, Penrith reached 48.9 degrees. It was the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Sydney area. That afternoon, it was one of the hottest places on Earth.

Coral had the blinds down and a wet towel on her neck. Then she saw the fairy-wrens. They were lined up on the bricks under her old garden tap, the one that never stops dripping. One drop would fall. One bird would drink. Then the next one hopped forward.

“The bird bath was full. It was just too deep for them. They wanted that one drop on the bricks.”

She filled a shallow saucer and set it under the mulberry tree. Within ten minutes, every fairy-wren in the street was in it. A New Holland honeyeater came down out of the gum tree next door. Then an eastern spinebill.

That evening she picked the biggest leaf off her father’s mulberry tree. She had spent 34 years making things out of leaves and flowers. Now she wanted to make one that would hold water.

One mulberry leaf, a tray of sand and five summers

Coral’s workshop is the garden shed behind the house. There is a pegboard of tools, a fan for the hot days and a shelf full of little jars of copper paint.

She presses a fresh mulberry leaf into a tray of damp sand to make the shape. A small foundry in Smithfield pours the metal. Everything after that, Coral does herself. She smooths the edges. She brushes out every vein. She paints the copper colour on in three thin coats, so the dark shade settles into the lines like an old penny. Then she sets a little metal bird on the rim.

Each leaf takes her about three hours. In five summers, she has finished more than 1,100 of them. Most of them are in backyards across Western Sydney.

“The little bird on the rim tells the real ones it’s safe to come down.”

What five summers taught her about a fairy-wren

Coral does not talk about her bird baths like a shopkeeper. She talks like someone who has watched the same birds drink every morning for five years.

• “The Wren Depth.” The leaf is only 3.5 centimetres deep. “A fairy-wren wants to stand in the water, not swim in it. A deep bird bath is a pond to them.”
• “The Mulberry Veins.” The raised veins of a real leaf give tiny feet something to grip. “A smooth bowl gets slippery. The veins are better than any non-slip mat.”
• “The Thirty-Second Rinse.” The leaf lifts straight off the stake. Tip it out, rinse it under the tap, fill it, put it back. “In the heat, water goes warm and green in a day. Fresh water every morning is the whole secret.”
• “The Shade Shuffle.” The stake is light and has a forked foot, so it does not spin. Pull it out and push it back in under the tree when the sun moves. “At midday I move it into the shade. Hot water is no good to anyone.”

The leaf is about 27 centimetres across and stands 51 centimetres high. It is light enough to carry in one hand, with the hose in the other.

Trish Bannon has counted backyard birds around Penrith for more than 20 years as a volunteer. She has two of Coral’s leaves in her own garden.

“Small birds like fairy-wrens need shallow water close to cover, and they need it fresh every day in summer. Coral’s leaf does all of that. It’s exactly what I tell people to put out before the first heatwave.”
— Trish Bannon, backyard bird counter, Penrith

Why so many of them go out in pairs

Over the years, Coral noticed that people kept coming back for a second leaf. One goes in the back under a tree. The other goes in the front garden, where the birds from the street can find it. Some give the second one to a mum or a grandchild for Christmas.

Anyone who wants two simply puts a second leaf in the cart. Two together come a little cheaper.

The winter she could not see the veins any more

The trouble started with her eyes. For a while, Coral blamed the light in the shed. Then she blamed her glasses. This winter, the eye doctor told her the truth. Her close-up sight is going, and it will not come back.

The fine work on a leaf is all close-up. The veins. The thin coats of paint. The tiny bird on the rim. One afternoon in July, she painted the same leaf twice and still could not tell if it was done.

“I can still fill the leaf for the fairy-wrens every morning. I just can’t see the veins well enough to finish another one.”

What she will miss most is not the work. It is the early hour in the shed with the radio on, while the fairy-wrens splash in the leaf outside the door.

There are 64 finished leaves left. When they are gone, there will be no more.

She could have asked $120. She didn’t.

A stallholder at a big weekend market once offered to sell her leaves for $120 each. Coral said no. She wants them in backyards, not on market tables.

So she priced the last 64 at little more than what the foundry and the paint cost her. Low enough that people can buy two. Low enough that a grandchild can buy one for a nan who feeds the birds.

“Every leaf out there is one more backyard where a fairy-wren doesn’t go thirsty in January.”

Whoever gets one of these last leaves is not just buying a bird bath. They are carrying on what Coral started on the hottest day her town ever had.

What bird lovers say about Coral’s leaves

• ★★★★★

  “My old bird bath sat there full of water and empty of birds for two years. The fairy-wrens found this one the first morning. Now there’s a little queue.”

  Sharon K., Blacktown NSW
• ★★★★★

  “I lift the leaf off every morning, rinse it and fill it with the hose. Takes no time. The honeyeaters are in it before I’m back inside.”

  Lyn P., Toowoomba QLD
• ★★★★★

  “Bought the pair. One for me and one for Mum for Christmas. She rings me every time a wren has a bath.”

  Kerri D., Geelong VIC

Three questions people ask before ordering

Where can I buy Coral’s leaf bird baths?

Only through this page. Coral’s leaves are not sold on Amazon, Temu or in any shop.

How long will they be available?

Only while supplies last. Coral can no longer finish new leaves. There are 64 left, and once they are gone, there will not be any more.

What if it’s not right for my garden?

You have 30 days to try it in your own backyard. If you are not happy, just send a short email and you will get your money back. No questions, no hassle.

More notes from backyards that got one of the last leaves

• ★★★★★

  “It’s light, so I wasn’t sure. But the forked stake holds it straight, even in our hard clay. I move it into the shade at lunchtime, just like Coral does.”

  Debbie M., Murray Bridge SA
• ★★★★★

  “The copper colour looks like it’s been in the garden for years. Everyone who visits asks where I got it.”

  Pam W., Mandurah WA
• ★★★★★

  “My nan fed the birds her whole life. Coral’s story got me a bit teary. I ordered two before they’re gone.”

  Tegan R., Newcastle NSW