No sign-up needed. You can save notes on this device.
An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Bird wrasses change sex from female to male.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Bird wrasse
- Scientific name
- Gomphosus varius
- Japanese name
- クギベラ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Labriformes
- Family
- Labridae
- Genus
- Gomphosus
Where the name “Bird wrasse” comes from
Its English name bird wrasse comes from its bird-like snout.
Waikīkī AquariumA fish that lives from southern islands such as the Izu and Ryukyu Islands to Taiwan, Hong Kong and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Adults have a very long, stretched-out snout. It mainly eats crustaceans such as shrimp and crabs, and mollusks such as shellfish.
Males are bright green, while females are grayish toward the front of the body and blackish toward the back.
How the Bird wrasse lives
It lives on reefs swept by waves. It plucks small crustaceans from between coral branches to eat. It swims by beating its pectoral fins up and down in a flying motion.
Waikīkī AquariumBasic data
- Diet
- Crustaceans and mollusks
- Range
- Izu Islands, Ogasawara Islands, Ryukyu Islands, southern Taiwan, Indo-Pacific east of Sri Lanka except Easter Island, and elsewhere
Where the Bird wrasse has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- クギベラ
- 简体中文
- 杂色尖嘴鱼
- 繁體中文
- 雜色尖嘴魚
- Español
- Vieja trompetera
- Français
- Perroquet
- Deutsch
- Grüner Vogel-Lippfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Bodião-passarinho
- Italiano
- Labro uccello del Pacifico
- Русский
- Губан-бекас
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — クギベラChecked: 2026-11-04
- Waikīkī Aquarium — Bird WrasseChecked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
Report a mistakeRELATIVES
Others in Labridae
MORE TO MEET
