A Second World War United States Navy submarine was named the USS Flier after this fish.

The flier is a small, strongly compressed species of sunfish which has a moderately sized, oblique mouth.

Fish of a standard length less than around 45 millimeters (1.8 in) have an obvious dark eyespot, or ocellus, which has a reddish margin on the soft part of the dorsal fin.

[3] The flier is found in the southern part of the United States along the Atlantic seaboard from the Potomac River drainage in Maryland, where it was most likely introduced to central Florida.

[5] The flier is found in clear, acidic waters including ponds in swamps, sloughs, oxbows, slow-flowing creeks and steams.

They feed largely on invertebrates including insects, snails, worms and leeches although they will also eat smaller fishes and some phytoplankton.

[6] Breeding normally occurs March to May when the water temperature reaches 14–17 °C (57–63 °F) but it has been recorded as early as February.

[6] The flier was first formally described by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756–1825) in 1801 as Labrus macropterus with the type locality given as South Carolina.

Common and scientific names of the fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, 7th Edition.