Chaetodon humeralis has an oval disc-like body which is strongly compressed and it has a small mouth positioned at the end of a short snout.The colour of the body is white or silvery white with obvious brownish-black bands on the line of the pectoral fin and another running in from the base of the caudal fin, a third brownish-black band runs from the nape down through the eye to the throat.[4] Chaetodon humeralis is found in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, its most northerly occurrence is at Redondo Beach in Los Angeles, California and from there, its range extends south to Peru.[1] Chaetodon humeralis is strongly associated with rock reefs but has been recorded over a variety of substrates in different parts of its range, including intertidal pools, mangroves and estuaries.[1] Chaetodon humeralis was first formally described in 1860 by the German-born British zoologist Albert Günther (1830–1914) with the type locality given as “the Sandwich Islands” in error for Central America.