The bird-voiced treefrog is usually a mottled gray, but like many treefrogs, its dorsal coloration may change to brownish or green with temperature or activity. This frog is easily mistaken for the larger gray treefrog, which is very similar in coloration, including a light square below the eye. The bird-voiced treefrog is most easily distinguished from its look-alike by the greenish yellow flash colors on the concealed portion of its hind leg, which are usually more orange in color in the gray treefrog. Bird-voiced treefrogs inhabit wooded swamplands of the South, where they can be heard calling during spring and summer.
Ten Facts about Bird-voiced Treefrog
- They can be 1 to 2 inches (25 to 51 mm) in length.
- Throats on males may be darkened during breeding season.
- These frogs are found in brushy areas, often near permanent rivers and creeks with side pools that are flooded in spring.
- Breeding occurs from April to July, depending on the temperature and rainfall.
- Males generally call from heights of 1 - 2 meters above the ground, usually on the stems or limbs of bushes or trees near the edge of the water or overhanging the water.
- Female lays in shallow water, in packets of 6 to 15 eggs, total production about 650 eggs.
- There call is like a ringing birdlike whistle, wit-wit-wit-wit rapidly repeated 20 or more times.
- In North America, these treefrogs are found from extreme southern Illinois to Louisiana and east to the Florida panhandle, east-central Georgia and adjacent South Carolina; isolated colonies in Ga., Ala., La., and Okla.
- They also know as Hyla avivoca.
- Snakes, fishes, wild cats, birds are their predators.
