South-central South America in south-eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, western and central Uruguay, extreme southern Brazil (south-western Rio Grande do Sul), and Argentina (south to eastern Neuquén and northern Río Negro, east to Corrientes and Entre Ríos, rarely north-eastern and south-western Buenos Aires).
 
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper (Drymornis bridgesii) [XC53167]
by Carlos Ferrari from La Cumbre, Valle de Punilla, Cordoba, Argentina (song)
Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper (Drymornis bridgesii) [XC48894]
by Bernabe Lopez-Lanus from Estancia El Potrero (casco), Gualeguaychu_Entre Rios, Argentina (song)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
May be ancestral to all other Dendrocolaptidae; syrinx structure differs from that of all others, and genus is one of very few not infested by Platyacarus feather mites. Characters ascribed to proposed subspecies meridionalis (from La Pampa, in Argentina) appear to reflect largely individual variation.