Lately, I have been thinking about Anurans—frogs and toads. There are a little under 100 species in the U.S., but that’s not so many that enthusiastic amateur naturalists can’t become familiar with the most common ones in their locales in a short time. For comparison, there are several hundred species of birds in the U.S., many of which have different plumages for different ages, sexes, and seasons, as well as multiple calls and songs for different purposes. That’s not to say that frogs and toads show no intraspecies variation. However, the degree of variation is less overwhelming, and, again, it’s easier to learn to identify 10-30 or so species—about the number that you could reasonably expect to find in any given region of the country, I think—than it is to learn upwards of 200 species of birds that occur regularly in the state where you live.
How do you begin learning about frogs and toads?
Well, these days, there are several useful online resources that can help you.
I happen to like the
U.S. Geological Survey page, which allows you to see the species lists for all of the eastern states (unfortunately, western states haven’t been added yet) and listen to recordings.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums is another great site, and contains links for FrogWatch USA as well as information about amphibian conservation. If you are interested in learning even more about amphibian identification, search the databases of
Macaulay Library and
AmphibiaWeb.
There are also plenty of good field guides that help with visual and/or aural identification.
When I was a child, I enjoyed listening to the cassette tape that, along with a short booklet, comprised
A Field Guide to Mississippi Frog Songs.
This explains why I knew several frog sounds long before I became interested in birds.
No matter what sources you use, though, keep in mind that there is no substitute for hearing frogs and toads in their natural habitats. If you’re frogwatching in a particularly good location, you will probably hear several frog species calling at once, so you will need to pay close attention to the differences. Loud, overlapping choruses of frogs and toads can sometimes make it difficult to concentrate! During the breeding seasons, singing male frogs are working hard to attract females, so they need to be as loud and persistent as possible. Right now, in late February and early March, the main species calling in the southeastern U.S. is the spring peeper. In January and February, spring peepers are often outnumbered by chorus frogs, which, as I’ve mentioned before, have a metallic sound to their song. In a few weeks, I will expect to hear toads, and, by late March, gray treefrogs, green treefrogs, squirrel treefrogs, and others will have entered their breeding period.
To help get you started learning about frogs and toads during this leap year, here are some of the short articles I’ve written about Anurans in Mississippi:
Happy frogwatching!
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