African birds - Kite, Mallard??

Saw this little kite this morning, made my day...faily common, but still...

We call them "Blue" kite, because of their blue-ish colour in the light.

Another interesting plover in our region - Blacksmith plover

another shot...could not get the focus right.

Also found the Redknobbed Coot and

a young redknobbed Coot...no markings yet!

Finally a surprise - a North-American in our pond - Mallard

the female....

"Blue kite" is I presume a direct translation of the Afrikaans name? It is Black-shouldered Kite in English in the official lists.

Mallard has an entire Northern Hemisphere distribution, they're abundant throughout Europe and Asia as well. Your pair look like they've escaped from a farmyard, they're too fat to be wild birds ;-)

Resin

Yeah we call them black-shouldered kite, sorry forgot to add the "correct" name. It seems these two Mallard came down from Gauteng (they not very common in our parts and they have the pond, which is in a natural park, for themselves, with the coot.). From what I've read they are not about to leave either....they may be fed from visitors to the botanical gardens! We are not talking your gardens, we are talking a few ha of natural gardens, with 2 inclusive hills, etc. Nice walk on a Sunday. Its actually a spot where some of the boer-war clashes happened round 1898-1901.

Anyway, sorry for the name, I forgot, and it may be that they are fed..but they do not like me coming too close, there is a bird-hide, I walked around to take a pic...they moved off pretty quickly.

I am wondering if these large mallards could be Rouen ducks, which is a domestic. Is there any possibility these loves were placed on the pond?

Lovely shots!

Kim

Duckmother - thanks, no, I do not think so. Actually, according to Nature conservation here, they are not to happy about them being here. There is a chance of cross breeding with endemics, forget which one.