Widespread throughout its large range, the black-billed sicklebill is evaluated as being of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The generic name Drepanornis consists of the words Drepane for "sickle" and ornis for "bird", so the genus name literally means "sickle bird", referring to their sickle-shaped bill; the specific name commemorates the Italian naturalist Luigi Maria d'Albertis, who discovered this species in 1872.

The race cervinicauda's subspecific name consists of cervinus for "stag-colored" and "cauda" for tail, geisleri honors Bruno Geisler, a German ornithologist who described this subspecies, and inversus means "overturned".

The male has a bare maroon-grey skin around its eye, buff-colored tail, dark-brown iris, yellow mouth and black sickle-like bill.

The black-billed sicklebill is found in mountainous areas with a scattered range of presence across western, central and eastern New Guinea.