Bird Wrasse

The Bird Wrasse (Gomphosus varius) is a distinctive Indo-Pacific reef wrasse named for its long, forward-projecting snout that resembles a bird's beak. Terminal-phase males are green to blue-green, while females and juveniles (initial phase) are brown to blackish with paler fronts, so the sexes look quite different. The elongated snout is a feeding adaptation for reaching prey deep in coral crevices. Bird Wrasse are fast, constantly swimming reef fish and, like other wrasses, are protogynous hermaphrodites.

The Bird Wrasse is one of the easiest wrasses to identify:

• Long, tubular, beak-like snout unlike any other reef wrasse.
• Terminal males: blue-green overall with a lunate tail.
• Initial phase (females/juveniles): brown to black, often paler on the front half.
• Slender, fast-swimming body ~25-30 cm.

The elongated beak alone confirms the identification.

Bird Wrasse live on coral-rich reefs, reef flats, and lagoons from the shallows to about 30 m across the tropical Indo-Pacific and central Pacific. They favour areas of live branching coral, where the long snout can probe crevices, and range widely over the reef while foraging.

Bird Wrasse swim almost continuously by day, using their beak-like snouts to reach into coral branches and crevices for small crustaceans, brittle stars, molluscs, and small fishes. At night they shelter in the reef. They are protogynous hermaphrodites; dominant fish transform into brightly coloured terminal males that court females and spawn in the water column above the reef.