Syndactyla is a genus of foliage-gleaners, birds in the ovenbird familyFurnariidae. 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 adaption 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 rufosuperciliatusLafresnaye, the buff-browed foliage-gleaner. This is therefore the type species by monotypy.[1][2] The name comes from Ancient Greek σύν (sún), meaning "together", and δάκτυλος (dáktulos), meaning "finger".[3] Members of this genus are most closely related to the foliage-gleaners in the genus Anabacerthia.[4][5] The recurvebills, S. ucayalae and S. striata, were formerly placed in their own genus Simoxenops,[4]and S. roraimae was formerly placed in the genus Automolus.[6]
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. ISBN84-87334-50-4
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.
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