diagnostics
23 cm, 60-65 g. A compact, short-tailed, long-legged nightjar of moist lowland grasslands. Sexes differ mainly in colour and extent of wing and tail markings (white in male, buff in female). Male best identified by broad white outer rectrices; commonly confused with Square-tailed Nightjar C. fossii, but Swamp Nightjar has prominent dark face, and lacks white bar on lesser coverts, white-tipped secondaries, and buffy scapular bar. Voice and habitat are also helpful in separating the two species, Square-tailed Nightjar having a much faster ‘churring' song and occupying woodlands, savannah, and dune scrub rather than wetland edges and coastal grassland (Davies and Allan 2005).
