I was taking a walk (as I always do) on Saturday morning around my neighbourhood. There's a couple of ponds around and on the bank of one of those ponds, I saw two strange ducks. Their bright yellow beaks really caught my attention and I took a couple of photos, but I thought they were just strange mallards.
Upon further research once I got home, however, it turned out that these ducks were, in fact, Yellow-Billed Ducks! They are only native to some parts of Africa. Not sure how or why they came here to North-Western Germany! Maybe escaped pets?
It’s a really neat find! They are listed as not migratory so maybe your hunch is correct and they were perhaps someone’s pets that escaped?
Either way, I would be excited to report them on eBird or the German equivalent with the photos! 🤩
https://ebird.org/checklist/S141315754 - I'm way ahead of you! :-) eBird seems to have reported it as a rarity and it's currently waiting to be confirmed (whatever that entails, I've never reported a rare bird before haha)
I saw that a couple of zoos nearby (well, "nearby" - I found one like 80 km away) seem to have them, so maybe it's possible that they escaped from there as well?
Unfortunately they were just sitting on the ground so I wasn't able to see if they had been ringed. I'll check again soon to see if they're still there and if I can get a glimpse of their legs to see if they have a ring! They weren't shy at all, however, and didn't mind my getting close (hence the close-up photo). That might also be indicative of their being either an escaped pet or a zoo "inhabitant" - they'd be used to humans then. Other ducks (even the mallards) wouldn't have let me come this close without leaving. Especially not now with all the chicks around!