---
title: Blackside Hawkfish (Paracirrhites forsteri)
scientific_name: Paracirrhites forsteri
common_name: Blackside Hawkfish
taxon: Hawkfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-26T18:21:57.388Z
updated: 2026-08-24T15:20:11.876Z
tags: Blackside Hawkfish, Paracirrhites forsteri, Hawkfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/hawkfishes/blackside-hawkfish
---

# Blackside Hawkfish (*Paracirrhites forsteri*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Hawkfishes (*Cirrhitidae*)
- **Size:** 22 cm
- **Depth:** 1-35 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Seaward reef slopes, perched on coral heads
- **Reproduction:** Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- sits motionless on top of coral, propped on thickened lower pectoral rays
- broad black to dark brown band along the rear half of the body
- pale gray head and forebody speckled with red-brown
- small tufts on the tips of the dorsal spines
- up to 22 cm

Hawkfish are named for how they hunt. This one sits on top of a coral head, propped up on the thickened lower rays of its pectoral fins, and waits; when a small fish or shrimp passes below, it drops on it. It has no swim bladder, so staying in place costs it nothing at all - the moment it stops swimming it settles onto the coral.

Look at the tips of the dorsal spines and you will find small tufts. Every hawkfish has them, and nobody has established what they are for.

Every one of these fish is born female. They live in small harems, one large male with several females, and if the male is removed the largest female changes sex and takes his place within days. The change runs one way only.

Color varies more than in most reef fish. The constant is the broad dark band down the rear half of the body against a pale, red-speckled front end; juveniles can be reddish or olive-green above depending on where in the Indo-Pacific they grew up.

## Also known as

- **English:** blackside hawkfish, Forster's Hawkfish, Freckled Hawkfish
- **French:** Poisson Faucon à Taches de Rousseur, Poisson-faucon à taches de rousseur, Épervier à Bande Noire
- **Italian:** Pesce falco di Forster
- **German:** Gestreifter Korallenwächter
- **Spanish:** Halcón de Forster
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-falcão-pontilhado, Peixe-gavião-pintado
- **Dutch:** Slanke Koraalklimmer
- **Czech:** štětičkovec Forsterův
- **Japanese:** ホシゴンベ, Hoshigombe
- **Chinese:** 福氏副䱵
- **Russian:** Крупночешуйный кудрепёр Форстера
- **DA:** Fregnet falkefisk
- **DIV:** Gaa boa
- **FIJ:** bika vatu
- **SMO:** Lausiva
- **TAH:** Patu'I
- **TH:** ปลาเหยี่ยวหน้าจุด

## Scientific synonyms

- *Grammistes forsteri* Schneider, 1801
- *Paracirrhites fosteri* (Schneider, 1801)
- *Paracirrhites typee* Randall, 1963

## Range

Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/hawkfishes/blackside-hawkfish)*
*Updated: August 24, 2026*