Syndactyla is a genus of foliage-gleaners, birds in the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It now includes the two recurvebills.
The recurvebills are restricted to humid forests in the South American countries of Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. Their common name refers to the peculiar bill-shape, which, at least in the case of the larger-billed Peruvian recurvebill, is an adaptation for manipulating bamboo stems. Both species are overall rufescent brown. The SACC reclassified the recurvebills from the genus Simoxenops to Syndactyla based on studies from Dewberry (2011).
Taxonomy The genus Syndactyla was introduced in 1853 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach to accommodate Xenops rufosuperciliatus Lafresnaye, the buff-browed foliage-gleaner. This is therefore the type species by monotypy. The name comes from Ancient Greek σύν (sún), meaning "together", and δάκτυλος (dáktulos), meaning "finger". Members of this genus are most closely related to the foliage-gleaners in the genus Anabacerthia. A high resolution version of the phylogenetic tree in Figure 1 is available from the first author's website here. The recurvebills, S. ucayalae and S. striata, were formerly placed in their own genus Simoxenops, and S. roraimae was formerly placed in the genus Automolus.
Species The genus contains eight species:
Image Scientific name Common Name Distribution Syndactyla rufosuperciliata Buff-browed foliage-gleaner eastern foothills of Central Andes ;also southern Atlantic forest, northeastern Argentina and Uruguay Syndactyla dimidiata Planalto foliage-gleaner Brazil Syndactyla roraimae Tepui foliage-gleaner tepuis Syndactyla subalaris Lineated foliage-gleaner northern Andes Syndactyla ruficollis Rufous-necked foliage-gleaner southern Ecuador and northern Peru Syndactyla guttulata Guttulate foliage-gleaner Venezuelan Coastal Range Syndactyla ucayalae Peruvian recurvebill southeastern Peruand sparsely present across Amazonia - Syndactyla striata Bolivian recurvebill Yungas
References
Bibliography Remsen, J. V. 2003. Simoxenops ucayalae & S. striatus (Peruvian & Bolivian Recurvebill). Pp. 331 in: del Hoyo, J., A. Alliott, & D. A. Christie. eds. 2003. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 8. Broadbills to Tapaculos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. DERRYBERRY, E., S. CLARAMUNT, G. DERRYBERRY, R. T. CHESSER, J. CRACRAFT, A. ALEIXO, J. PÉREZ-ÉMAN, J. V. REMSEN, JR., & R. T. BRUMFIELD. 2011. Lineage diversification and morphological evolution in a large-scale continental radiation: the Neotropical ovenbirds and woodcreepers (Aves: Furnariidae). Evolution 65: 2973–2986.