These gurnards are found in the Eastern Atlantic, Indian and Western Pacific Oceans.

Chelidonichthys was first formally described as a genus in 1873 by the German zoologist Johann Jakob Kaup.

In 1896 Trigla hirundo was designated as the type species of the genus by David Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann, T. hirundo is now treated as a junior synonym of Trigla lucerna which had been described by Linnaeus in 1758 from the "Northern Ocean".

[3] There are currently three subgenera and ten recognized species in this genus:[4][3] Chelidonichthys gurnards have bont plates along the base of first spiny dorsal fin but not along the base of the second soft rayed dorsal fin.

[5] The largest species is the tub gurnard (C. lucerna) of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, which has a maximum published total length of 75 cm (30 in), while the smallest is C. ischyura with a maximum published total length of 15 cm (5.9 in).