Perhaps the bird with the biggest bill in South America, for its size, is the Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper.

There are 52 species of Woodcreepers, they live only in South and Central America and are essentially sub-tropical woodland birds.

Paula and I were able to film and photograph this beautiful bird feeding on the ground in the Copo National Park in Argentina. We also watched it as it climbed a tree. Its long toes and stiff tail enabled it to do this with ease. Using its amazingly long de-curved bill it probed into a bromeliad plant and extracted what looked like an insect.

Then one day we found a Red-billed Scythbill and knew that THAT, compared to the size of the birds body, was the bird with the biggest bill in the world.

 

 

The long de-curved bill allows the bird to hunt where the other birds with a shorter bill cannot reach for food. Once the prey is caught in the bill tip, it throws back the head and drops the food into its mouth.