When artist and "bird guy" Mike McLean started painting willie wagtails on discarded fence palings on Victoria's Surf Coast, he had little idea of the phenomenon about to take flight.But his colourful images, which he gives away free to Torquay residents and sells for $20 to others, found a life of their own during COVID and have since migrated around the world.An Instagram page documenting the wagtails' spread shows them on first-class flights, at temples in Japan, the canals in Venice, on the foreshore in Santa Monica and even on an icy runway in Antarctica. The artist's willie wagtail paintings have travelled widely, including to Japan I'm going to take one over to my son in the Netherlands," Ms Fitzpatrick says.Mike McLean continues to paint the birds on old fence palings using donated paint.The birds are time-consuming, taking up two to three hours of his day, but the artist looks at that time as meditation.The focus on the sprightly birds has distracted McLean from what has been a tough few years for artists."I think the creative arts have really been hit hard because people don't have money to spend on luxury items," he says."They may be going on less holidays, going out to cafes for breakfast, lunch or dinner less, and painting sales have dropped."McLean's now planning a massive flock of wagtails to really grab people's attention."My creative ambition with the wagtails is to do large flocks of joy