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As a matter of fact.. yes

When you are on a night drive.. you better take aim and fire.. Nightjars to some of the guides just means an irritation in the road

All jokes aside, the best feature to look for to ID Square-tailed Nightjar is the spots on the secondaries, and they are on all the pics.

Thanks to all you fundis, these last discussions (nightjars, steppe eagle) have been fascinating and very informative! Also encouraging to those of us struggling that we're not alone

like I will say again and again... one of the most interesting thread... with Raptors
thanks a lot for the lesson

Thank you for your input, deefstes, I suspected at the time that it might be a juvenile "Piet".

I thought all four the night jars looked the same!, but because I can't ID night jars (except for european perching on a branch ) I thought I was just being ignorant again

I like the pic of the square-tailed with the diagnostic features clearly indicated Lizet! Could you do the same for the other species at some stage?

Thanks for the info and the illustration Lizet. I'm not arguing with you and I can easily buy the argument that DD's second bird is also a Square-tailed Nightjar, but I would like to explore this notion of spots on the secondaries, the scapular line and the foreward wingbar - simply because I still struggle with Nightjar ID more than I feel I should. Maybe it's time I open a bit of discussion on the specific features again. So sorry, you've just landed yourself in the middle of it.

First of all, I am still not always sure whether I'm looking at a bird's greater coverts or secondaries. If you had asked me which feathers the line on your illustration points to I would have said the greater upperwing coverts. Either way, I do agree that the white tips to the secondaries are a key feature of Square-tailed Nightjar but I was not aware that it is a useful feature when the bird is sitting (when it flies, they form a very noticeable white trailing edge to the wing). Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the trailing edge of the wing (tips of secondaries) fold under the tertials when the wing is folded in?

Secondly, the scapular line; Don't almost all species of Nightjar have white (or at least buff) lateral fringing to the scapulars? As a result you can see a scapular line to a greater or lesser extent on Fiery-necked Nightjar as well.

Below are two images of Fiery-necked Nightjar and Rufous-cheeked Nightjar which I've annotated to point out what I believe are the same scapular lines and spots on the greater coverts (or are those secondaries?) that you pointed out on Square-tailed. (I'm hoping our friend Niall will forgive me for scaling his images).




The bar on the forewing is not really seen on Fiery-necked and therefore probably a good feature to separate Square-tailed. However, it certainly is seen on Rufous-cheeked. Admittedly, Rufous-cheeked isn't really a contender if you're looking at a bird in southern Kruger but I'd love to hear your opinions on the above issues as I find separating Rufous-cheeked from Fiery-necked to be more challenging than any of the other and I really think it's about time I really get to grips with these birds.

I don't want to post too many pictures here but below is a link to another Fiery-necked Nightjar showing a very bold scapular line:
Clickety
...and another Rufous-cheeked Nightjar showing both the scapular line and the wing bar:
Clickaroo

Careful Dabchick, while the habit of European Nightjars perching lengthwise on branches are often cited, it's by no means diagnostic. I've seen Fiery-necks and Square-tails doing that as well (and I have no reason to believe that Rufous-cheeked won't also) and I've also seen Europeans sitting on the road just like you'd expect to see others.

Fascinating stuff

Thanks Lizet, Deefstes.

I have been looking at those particular lines you pointed out carefully and it does make sense.. My problem I have is, that I did see some nightjars fly off on the night which was sitting all round the nightjars I took pics off, and I couldn't spot any outer white tail markings on those that I did get to see fly off. Now this could probably be a coincidence that I chose to take photo's of just the Square Tailed's

Nightjar ID's are really difficult and I believe they are so difficult because they are birds you just don't see that often, and often enough to make a good enough "giss" call on them.

Something I would like to try and find out is what Nightjar is the most common around Southern Kruger? Just out of curiosity. My bet would probably be Sqaure Tailed? I have seen them up in Punda, Satara and now all over LS. So if that is the case, then just like the African Pipit, one should probably have that mentality of "Why is it not a Square Tailed"

I really can't add too much to this debate regarding ID features but I will for damn sure continue reading as I am learning a great deal!

I would suggest that the more common Nightjar in southern Kruger is Fiery-necked while in northern Kruger the Square-tailed reigns supreme. Of course this is just from my personal experience but, as it happens, I've found myself on a variety of night drives in various parts of Kruger in recent times.

Recently (WRHR birding weekend) at Biyamithi, during the three night drives with four vehicles each going their own routes, we recorded a fair number of Fiery-necked Nightjars but only one vehicle recorded one Square-tailed on one of the three night drives. I personally didn't see any Square-tails over the entire weekend.

Three weeks later we were in the Berg-en-Dal area and did two night drives on two consecutive nights. Again, the majority of Nightjars recorded were Fiery-necked with only three sightings of Square-tail and one sighting of Freckled.

In northern Kruger of course, Rufous-cheeked gets added to the mix although they are few and far between compared to Square-tailed and Fiery-necked. Oh and of course that pesky Pennant-winged Nightjar that keeps coming in the way However, my recollection is that on night drives from Pafuri, Punda, Shingwedzi, Satara and Letaba, the dominant species was Square-tailed.

Deefstes,
Sorry but maybe I have it all wrong, but I thought the bottomline spots is on the secondaries? Will you call that then rather the greater wingcoverts? On what is the top row above them then on?

The lines that I pointed out was spesifically to ID Square-tailed. All three lines are very obvious and bold in STNJ. All my STNJ pics that I've ever taken show these 3 lines very clearly and it was just on my own experience that I showed it to DD, but I consider all three together..

When I look at a nightjar I don't just consider these lines to make an ID, I take an overall view of it, like the Fiery-necked you have other features to distingish it from ST as the rufous lores, cheeks and the rufous that stretches down to the breast then the lines don't even matter...and with Rufous-cheeked the bird is normally an overall greyish bird with the spots here and there on the wings and fine black streaking on the grey....etc.

DD, did you have your bins on the birds and were the spotlight on the birds when they flew off? Just asking...

okay, now it's official - I know zilch about id-ing night jars ... I'll watch the discussion here between the experts with great interest....

Or maybe I have it all wrong


I'll be the first to admit that bird anatomy never makes as much sense to me when I see a real bird as compared to a drawing. I would have thought the feathers on which the top row of spots are would be the 'median coverts'. But as I said, I might have it all wrong.


Fair enough. Let me just reiterate that I'm not challenging your identification, I merely want to make sure I understand how you arrive at it so that I can use it next time round.

I'd have to be honest that I've never really had to bother to understand the wing spots of STNJ seeing as the white outer tail feathers and trailing edge to the wing in flight is pretty much a dead giveaway. And if they weren't flying they soon would

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us Deefstes and Lizet. Very interesting stuff you two are teaching us here.

Deefstes,
I had a proper look at the layout in "Nocturnal Birds" and you are in fact right about the wing coverts. The secondaries are another row down as shown here on this Square-tailed but when visible it shows this pale line...

Female Square-tailed Nightjar.