Just waiting for a meal to swim by, thats what hawkfish do. You can get pretty close because they think they are so camaflauge and can’t see them. The sound of the camera shutter usually scares them when you get a close up so you only have one shot at it. Honolua Bay, Maui.

You can see from the picture that this hawkfish has unique and easy to identify markings. They are the largest of the common reef hawkfish, reaching about 5-8 inches in length. 5 Caves Makena.

It is quite easy to distinguish this fish from other hawkfish, the conspicious arc around the eye flaring back is present in both color stages of this fish. Arc-eyes almost always perch in cauliflower coral heads as in this photo. They are territorial and remain in one area to be seen there day after day. [...]

As with all hawkfish, this guy is at his perch, looking on for something to happen. Food? This hawkfish isn’t quite as large as the Freckled hawkfish. I haven’t noticed one larger than about 3.5 inches long. This species is quite a lot more shy than the others as well. Picture from Pu’u Ola’i, Makena, [...]

As the name suggests Hawkfish perch like a hawk on the reef, they are a bit territorial, living and remaining in a small area on the reef. They think they are invisable and tend to stay still until you have the camera in place to take the shot, then they swim away in a perturbed [...]