Parrotfishes are widely considered to be important grazers on coral reefs that remove autotrophic biomass from the reef substrate and create bare space that is conducive to larval coral settlement and recruitment . Because of the top-down effects associated with their benthic foraging, this has been a major focus of parrotfish research. Another aspect of parrotfish foraging and trophic ecology that has received very little attention is coprophagy, the consumption of fecal matter . The feces of planktivorous fishes, including Chromis spp., have been identified as important sources of nutrients and trace elements to tropical and temperate reef ecosystems . Their feces are readily consumed by a variety of fishes, including parrotfishes . Although parrotfish coprophagy has been observed in prior studies , its frequency has not yet been quantified. In this study, we observed foraging in five parrotfishes on the fringing reefs of Bonaire, Netherlands: Scarus iseri , Scarus taeniopterus , Scarus vetula , Sparisoma aurofrenatum , and Sparisoma viride . For three of these species, we observed individuals of both ontogenetic phases (terminal and initial phase) to investigate ontogenetic differences in foraging. We found that coprophagy was common in four of these species ( Sc. iseri , Sc. taeniopterus , Sc. vetula , and Sp. aurofrenatum ), occurring in 46-90% of individuals ( Sc. vetula and Sc. taeniopterus , respectively). Though we did not identify the origin of every fecal pellet consumed, we directly observed focal fishes targeting fecal pellets produced by planktivorous Chromis spp. that were often seen schooling above the reef during this feeding behavior. Additionally, most of the fecal pellets consumed by the parrotfishes were similar in appearance (i.e., relative size, shape, coloration, and consistency) to the feces produced by Chromis spp., predominantly Chromis multilineata , suggesting this common origin. However, bites on fecal matter were a relatively small proportion of the total bites taken by these ...