Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper Drymornis bridgesii Scientific name definitions

Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper is a striking and distinctive species. It was described to science in 1849 as Nasica bridgesii and was originally placed in the same genus as Long-billed Woodcreeper (Nasica longirostris). Because Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper differs in morphology from Long-billed Woodcreeper, in 1852 the genus Drymornis was erected for Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper and Greater Scythebill (Drymotoxeres pucheranii). However, due to its distinctiveness, in 1925 Drymornis became a monospecific genus.

This woodcreeper is found over a relatively large area of south-central South America, from southeastern Bolivia and extreme southern Brazil to central Argentina. It inhabits the Chaco woodlands, scrub, and espinal forests. Unlike other woodcreepers, it feeds on the ground where it forages for arthropods, although it also climbs trees like other woodcreepers. Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper is a mostly brown bird with a white supercilium and malar stripe, and with heavily streaked underparts; these streaks are broad and white with black edges. The bill is long and slightly curved. It also emits long and loud shrieking vocalizations that are quite distinctive. This species' scientific name commemorates Thomas Charles Bridges, an English botanist, zoologist, and collector who traveled widely in South America in the mid-1800s.