Red-billed Scythebill (Campyloramphus trochilirostris)
Red-billed Scythebill, Minas Gerais, Brazil, February 2002 - click for larger image Januária, Minas Gerais, Brazil
February 2002

The Red-billed Scythebill is the most widespread and common of the scythebills, a genus of woodcreepers with remarkably shaped bills.

It is found from Panama to northern Argentina except in the Guianas and throughout most of the Amazon Basin. It forages fairly low down in forest and woodland including caatinga and chaco. They often accompany mixed flocks.
The extraordinary bill has presumably evolved to help it hunt for insects in places where a normal bill could not reach such as bromeliads and the inside of bamboo stems. Having caught its prey in the tips of its bill it then throws back its head and drops the prey into its mouth.

There are illustrations in Ridgely & Tudor, Volume 2, Plate 14; and Ridgely &Greenfield, Plate 54.
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