I usually see these guys using their suction-cup like toepads to hang out on our glass patio doors at night. Despite being 6 or 8 feet above the ground, my cat (from indoors) always attempts numerous remarkable—yet futile—high jumps to try and reach them.
Lately, though, I’ve been delighted to run across several green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea), “hiding” in broad daylight on leaves and branches. Their deep green coloration blends perfectly with the surrounding vegetation. There’s one that seems to be a near-permanent resident on the mulberry tree we planted at UWF’s Heritage Roots Garden, while I saw two more on recent hikes. One was nestled at eye level on a tree at the edge of the Blackwater River, while another sat quietly on a saltbush plant at a coastal dune lake in south Walton County.
The common denominator in all those locations is that they’re in Florida, near water. Also nicknamed “rain frogs,” green treefrogs can be found in every county in the state, as long as they’re within a football field’s hop from a body of water to breed in.
Their skin coloration varies from light to deep green and speckled, but all have a horizontal stripe along their midsection; white outlined in black. They feed predominantly on insects; namely beetles, crickets, and stinkbugs. During their long breeding season (March-October), the males call at night, sometimes at a rate of 75 “quoonk-quoonk“s a minute! To hear their sounds (and those of dozens of other species), you can listen at this USGS site.
The green has several lookalikes, including the squirrel treefrog (no stripe), pinewoods treefrog (brown lateral stripe, through face), and pine barrens treefrog (stripe on side is brown with orange specks). The pine barrens is rare, endemic only to the northern stretches of a few counties nearby (Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay). The Cuban treefrog is one to look out for–this invasive species is known to prey on native frog and lizard populations. Particularly in its juvenile form, it can look quite similar to our native green and has made its way from south Florida to the panhandle.
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