Curve-billed scythebill

The curve-billed scythebill is 22.5 to 25 cm (8.9 to 9.8 in) long and weighs 30 to 38 g (1.1 to 1.3 oz). It is a slim, medium-sized woodcreeper with a very long, slim, dramatically decurved bill. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies C. p. procurvoides have a dark brown head and neck with thin whitish to buffy streaks on them and the face. Their back and wing coverts are olive-brown to reddish brown. Their flight feathers, rump, and tail ares rufous-chestnut that contrasts with the back. Their throat is buffy-white with a fine scaly appearance. Their underparts are dull brown with buffy-white arrow-shaped marks that become narrow streaks on the belly but don't continue onto the undertail coverts. Their underwing coverts are cinnamon-rufous. Their iris is dark brown to chestnut, their bill dark red to reddish brown (often with a dusky brown base and a paler mandible), and their legs and feet dusky green, brown, or dark gray.

Subspecies C. p. gyldenstolpei is very similar to the nominate. C. p. sanus is smaller than the nominate. It is more warmly colored with a whiter throat that is streaked instead of scaly. Its bill is shorter and more strongly decurved.