Syndactyla
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 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.
Taxonomy
The genus Syndactyla was introduced in 1853 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach to accommodate the buff-browed foliage-gleaner. The name comes from Ancient Greek σύν, meaning "together", and δάκτυλος, meaning "finger". Members of this genus are most closely related to the foliage-gleaners in the genus Anabacerthia. 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 Peru and sparsely present across Amazonia | |
| - | Syndactyla striata | Bolivian recurvebill | Yungas |