Hawkfish are strictly tropical, perciform marine fish of the family Cirrhitidae. Associated with the coral reefs of the western and eastern Atlantic and Indo-Pacific, the hawkfish family contains 12 genera and 32 species. They share many morphological features with the scorpionfish of the family Scorpaenidae. Hawkfish are noted for their protogynous hermaphrodism: functional females will change into males if the dominant supermale dies. Hawkfish are generally not sexually dichromatic, meaning the sexes cannot be distinguished by coloration alone.