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5 Reasons Why Thousands of Aussies Are Putting This Little Bronze Lady in the Backyard Before Summer — and why the fairy-wrens found her before the neighbours did.

A superb fairy-wren at the bowl on a warm spring morning.

Most backyard bird baths look the same: a concrete bowl on a pillar, baking in the sun by the fence. A couple of summers later the paint has gone chalky, there is a crack down one side and the birds have stopped coming.

This one looks like it has stood in an old homestead garden for a hundred years. A young woman sits on the grass, her gown spreading around her in layers of cast leaves. She lifts the hem of her dress, and the hem is the bowl.

She stands about 35 cm tall, needs next to no looking after, and has quietly turned up in thousands of Australian backyards this year. Here are five reasons why.

1She Makes Any Corner of the Yard Look Finished

Among the natives, with a rosella at the bowl. Most owners say it is the first thing visitors notice.

Every backyard has that one spot. A bare patch under the gum tree. The empty end of a garden bed. A corner of the verandah that never looks quite done. Put her there, and that is where everyone looks.

It is the detail. Every leaf of the gown has its own veins. A small bird is cast perched on her hand. Her face and arms are a deep bronze, and the gown has a soft blue-green verdigris, the colour old statues take on after decades outdoors.

She looks right in a native garden, under a lemon tree, on a sandstone wall or beside a pond.

“My neighbour leaned over the fence and asked which antique shop I found her in. I told him she came in a box. He did not believe me.”Jenny W., Bendigo

2The Birds Actually Use It

New Holland honeyeaters at the bowl in the late afternoon.

Here is something few people realise: a lot of bird baths are simply too deep. Fairy-wrens, silvereyes and honeyeaters want water they can stand in, a few centimetres at most. In a deep bowl, they land on the rim, peer in and fly off.

This bowl is shallow on purpose. It holds about half a litre, enough to drink and splash, never deep enough to be a danger to a small bird. The little bird on her hand doubles as a perch, so real birds often land there first before hopping down.

And on a 40-degree day, water matters more than food. Small birds have to drink just to stay cool, so a clean, shallow bowl near some shrubs often does more for them than another feeder ever will.

“Our old bird bath was too deep and the little ones never touched it. Within a week of filling this one, we had silvereyes every morning and a family of fairy-wrens every afternoon.”Tom B., Wagga Wagga

3It Handles an Australian Summer and Only Gets Better

Built for the heat: hot sun, dry wind and summer storms.

Concrete bird baths crack and go chalky in the sun. Resin ones fade, turn brittle and blow over in the first big southerly. Sooner or later, both end up on the nature strip.

This one is cast metal with a bronze and verdigris finish. It is heavy enough to stay put in the wind, the colour does not fade, and the green of the gown only deepens with every season outdoors. The overlapping leaves even guide rain straight into the bowl, so when a summer storm breaks, it fills itself.

“On the 40-degree days I top it up twice. The fairy-wrens splashing about in it is the best part of my afternoon.”David R., Toowoomba

4It Is the Present People Still Talk About Years Later

On Mum's patio, among the geraniums.

Most presents end up in a cupboard. This one ends up in the backyard, where it gets looked at every single day.

That is why so many are bought for Mum or Nan, for a mate who has just moved into a place with a yard, or for anyone who keeps binoculars on the kitchen windowsill. Every time a bird lands, they think of whoever gave it to them.

With Christmas a few weeks away, plenty of people are ordering two: one for their own yard and one to wrap.

“I bought it for Mum for Christmas. She calls it her little lady and sends me a photo of every bird that visits.”Linda P., Geelong

5It Costs Less Than a Meal Out, and Stock Is Running Low

Out of the box and into the garden bed in ten minutes.

A bronze garden statue from a nursery or an antiques dealer can easily cost a few hundred dollars. Most of them are not even bird baths.

This one costs less than a meal out, with free shipping Australia-wide and a 30-day money-back guarantee. It ships within two to three days, so it can be in the yard before the first heatwave.

Because so many are going out as early Christmas presents, stock is moving quickly. Just under 200 are left in the current shipment.

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