Decurved

Like Podoces, P. humilis possesses a slender, decurved bill, pale brown plumage and a dry, open-country habitat. ❋ Darren Naish (2006)

As I'm staring out at the sport fishing boats through the haze, a line of four large brownish shorebirds with decurved bills flies by. ❋ Unknown (2007)

Though ornithological writers are almost unanimous in distinguishing the buzzards as a group from the eagles, the grounds usually assigned for their separation are but slight, and the diagnostic character that can be best trusted is probably that in the former the bill is decurved from the base, while in the latter it is for about a third of its length straight. ❋ Various (N/A)

But note: the claws of the two hind toes are not so sharply decurved, nor so acute at the points, the finger slipping readily over them. ❋ Unknown (1896)

My field-glass was soon fixed upon him, revealing a little bird with a long beak, decurved at the end, a grayish-brown coat quite thickly barred and mottled on the wings and tail, and a vest of warm white finely sprinkled with a dusky gray. ❋ Unknown (1896)

SITTING ON THE PORCH with a cup of ginger tea, my journal, and bird book, I am watching through my binoculars what I believe to be sunbirds in the garden-elegant, purple-iridescent birds with a decurved bill. ❋ Unknown (2008)

These researches ended in a conviction that nothing like this construction pertained to the Mastodon, whose lower jaw ends in a distinctly decurved extremity, simply suited to give attachment to the muscles of a lip; as is evident on re - ferring to a specimen or to any authentic engraving. ❋ Unknown (1771)

The zygomatic (quadratojugal) is greatly decurved posteriorly, and the supratemporal is accordingly decurved also. ❋ Unknown (1771)

This is highly unusual among birds and it seems that the huge decurved bill and precision-grasping feeding technique that hornbills employ evolved in concert with their visual field (Martin & Coetzee 2004) [if you’re really interested in this particular subject do check out Graham Martin’s website]. ❋ Darren Naish (2006)