Some 7,000 herons permanently live in Amsterdam. They belong to three large colonies spread across the city: Frankendael park in the east, Beatrix park in the south, and at the city's zoo, directly above the pelican pond.

Most people like these peculiar long-legged thieves, but if you run a fast-food restaurant or live next door to the lady who feeds them twice a day, then these birds can become quite a nuisance. Streetwise introduces the living environment of this non-indigenous animal and gives the floor to both its supporters and opponents: the elderly woman who would rather spend her money on chicken wings for her feathered friends than on her heater; the maintenance worker at the zoo who removes their nests from trees to keep the population down; and the man with rare fish in his fishpond who would prefer to see them dead.