The Trekkie's Forum

The middle one is a Square-tailed Nightjar. Already told you so. You are getting your balls in a knot here, where is the nightjar in the tree?

First of all, I must say that these are gorgeous nightjar photos. Very well done.

Ok, so is the original middle one now at the bottom???

Where were these taken? Not that it will help much, but just interested. Nightjars are a bugger to id.

Last one also looks like Square Tailed.. Looks like White outer markings on the tail?

W@H here are my guesses.
As the birds were photographed in the northern Kruger we could most likely be dealing with 6 different species. Fiery-necked, Square-tailed, Freckled, Rufous-cheeked, Pennant-winged and European.
None are Freckled as these birds are quite distinctly grey in colour and fairly easy to id. Pennant-winged Nightjars also have a mottled colouration on the wings which doesn't seem to fit with any of your birds.
I also don't think any are Rufous-cheeked. The Rufous cheeks are also quite distinct and none of these birds show this.
That leaves us with Fiery-necked, European and Square-tailed.
#1 - Fiery-necked Nightjar. Reason being that it seems to show the broad rufous collar these birds typically have. Unfortunately that is all I can go on.
#2 - European Nightjar. These birds typically perch on branches and normally sit horizontal along a branch. I have seen other species perch on branches so its not a dead giveaway, and although its not sitting horizontal on the branch I have seen photos of this species not in the horizontal position. Other features that point towards European are longish wings, paler grey colour when compared with the other nightjars.
#3 - Square-tailed Nightjar. The easiest to id of the 3. It shows the distinctive white outer tail feathers

I may be wrong with the first two's id's but its my guesses anyway.

Thanks for the response so far .. here is another photo of NJ #1