Woody spent the whole day showing Billy how to fly from tree to tree, branch to branch, a little higher each time. When they were all set to fly to the Chinese elm, which was twice as high as the last tree, Woody noticed that Billy had turned pale – which was very obvious on a blackbird.

Without a moment’s thought, Woody swooped down to the ground and made a big pile of leaves halfway between the silver birch and Chinese elm. If Billy fell, he wouldn’t hurt his bottom again.

But as it turned out, Billy didn’t need the leaves. Because he didn’t fall…

The next morning at beakfest, while they both nibbled on seeds, Woody told his best friend Billy the blackbird all about Wonderwoods. How amazing it would be to live there. And how he was going to help him overcome his fear of heights so he could fly there.

As if by magic, Owlberta appeared. Her hearing was ten times better than humans. And as owls were completely silent when they flew – you couldn’t even hear their wings flap – she often turned up unexpectedly like that.

Owlberta reassured Billy that because he had something – a fear of flying high – it meant there must be a cure. She also explained how he didn’t actually have a fear of flying – but a fear of falling…

It was bedtime in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug National Park. And a wise old owl known as Owlberta would visit all the birds in the trees to tell them a story. She would arrive with her little owlet Twit Twoo who, let’s say, wasn’t the wisest of owls. But his mummy had told him that wisdom comes with age. And that it was OK to make mistakes because that’s how you learnt things. 

Cuddled up inside Woody’s nest, Owlberta revealed some amazing news that a pigeon called Peter, one of Utrecht’s street cleaners, had tweeted. Apparently, the humans were building a new forest called Wonderwoods in the heart of the city – just for the birds! But it wasn’t like any other forest they’d ever seen. It would grow vertically – up in the sky…