In the meantime, Kalinko has had the idea of asking the inhabitants of the birdhouse to give him a hand.
A couple of ibises are looking for insects.
"Just an instant, my friends, if it isn't too inconvenient! I'm here to tell you that the infamous wizard Zettelwitz
is hiding in the willow. I need an intelligent bird who can fly high and use some initiative to steal his wand!"
"I'll help you", Iris the ibis promises.
"Can you slip out of sight if you have to?", the king asks.
"Oh, I'm so thin that when I want to be I'm invisible! If I fold my wings in and stick my bill up in the air,
I look just like a twig!"
Now, we know that Zettelwitz isn't sitting up in the tree any more.
He's been inching his way toward the birdhouse, and listening in.
"Well, I can imagine a way to improve on your idiotic ideas! Iris, why don't you do an impression of an I instead?"
"Yikes!" pipes Iris and tries to fly away.
But the magician is too quick with his spell: