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Red-billed Scythebill | Campylorhamphus trochilirostris
Kolibriemuisspecht | Picoguadaña piquirrojo
The Red-billed Scythebill is a woodcreeper with a very long, strongly sickle-shaped, reddish bill. It is widespread in South America; in the guide area it occurs only in eastern Panama, where it is scarce.
Voice
A series of clear, somewhat plaintive whistles, often first rising and then falling.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
23–25 cm, a large part of which is bill. Bill long, thin and strongly decurved, red to reddish brown. Head, nape and underparts brown with narrow pale buff streaks; back brown, wings and tail rufous. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
Brown-billed Scythebill Campylorhamphus pusillus has a darker, brown bill and lives higher in the foothills and mountains. Other woodcreepers in the guide area have a much shorter, less curved bill.
Habitat
Humid lowland forest and forest edge, also secondary forest. It probes the curved bill into bark crevices, bromeliads and other epiphytes in search of insects and spiders. It often joins mixed-species foraging flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area only in eastern Panama, mainly in Darién. Outside the guide area across large parts of South America, south to northern Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
A rare species in the guide area; the best chance is in mixed flocks in the forests of Darién, paying attention to bill colour.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Widespread in South America; in the guide area scarce, local and dependent on forest.
Scientific name
Campylorhamphus trochilirostris | (Lichtenstein, 1820)
Lichtenstein described the species in 1820 as Dendrocolaptes trochilirostris; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Campylorhamphus was introduced in 1901 by Bertoni. Campylorhamphus is Greek, from kampulos 'curved' and rhamphos 'bill', after the long, strongly decurved bill. trochilirostris combines trochilus 'hummingbird' with Latin rostrum 'bill', after the long, curved, hummingbird-like bill. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bahia, Brazil.