The greenish adult male is significantly larger than the female growing to 30cm long.
The grey adult female has black-bordered body scales, a red upper snout, a dark line through the eye,
a white chest and a dark tail bordered with white. She transitions to male in later life.
The Birdmouth Wrasse, named after the long, beaklike snout of the adults, also called Bird Wrasse, is native to the
Pacific Ocean, from the easternmost Indian Ocean to Hawaii in the mid Pacific.
The male is similar to the related Green Birdmouth or Green Bird Wrasse of the Indian Ocean.
Both males can be mainly blue or greenish-blue/bluish-green, with a pale dorsal and anal fin and a pale blue edge to the pectoral fin.
Females of each species are more different, although both are greyish. The Bird Wrasse female is charcoal grey
rather than blue-grey and has a dark tail with a white border rather than a mainly yellow tail.