Marine life  /  Damselfish  /  Swallow damsel
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Species entry

Swallow damsel

Azurina hirundo

A slim blue-grey damselfish of the offshore islands, feeding in open water above the rock rather than on it.

Size
To 16 cm
Depth
5–30 m
Habitat
Open water just above rock
Active
Daylight
Range
Eastern Pacific
Rarity
Islas Revillagigedo
2 stars of 5, usually seen in a week
SP-01
swallow damsel · full body · habitat
4:3 · min 2400px

To about 17 cm. Slender and fusiform, steel blue to olive above and paler below, with orange on the throat.

The scissortail damselfish is the confusion and it has a white spot below the rear of the dorsal fin and blackish streaks in the tail lobes, neither of which this fish has, and no orange throat.

Five to thirty metres in open water around rocky reefs, feeding on zooplankton and pelagic fish eggs and larvae. No juvenile description was found.

Listed as Near Threatened. Its range is the southern California islands, Guadalupe, Cedros, Alijos Rocks and the Revillagigedos, so of the three eastern Pacific destinations on this site it belongs to Revillagigedo alone.

Where to find:

LocationRarity Best monthsDepthHabitat
Islas Revillagigedo Mexico editorial estimate
2 stars of 5, usually seen in a week
Year-round
5–30 m
Open water just above rock

Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.

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