Florida's Frogs
Treefrogs (Family Hylidae)
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Cope's Gray Treefrog
(Hyla chrysoscelis)
Cope's Gray Treefrog (click on small images to view larger)
Photos by (clockwise from top) Kevin Enge (FWC), Kristin Brown, Dr. Steve A. Johnson (UF), and Dirk Stevenson. Photos may not be used without the express written permission of the photographer. To obtain permission to use photos by Dr. Johnson for educational purposes, email tadpole@ufl.edu.
Size:
Usually 1 to 2 in.
Identification:
Body color is highly variable, ranging from whitish gray to green or brown, and marked with irregular, dark blotches. Skin is slightly warty (warts are not very prominent). There is a distinct white spot under each eye, much like the Bird-voiced Treefrog. The hidden surfaces of the legs are washed with orange-yellow (the wash on Bird-voiced Treefrogs is more greenish). Like all treefrogs, this species has enlarged, sticky toepads.
There are two nearly identical species of gray treefrogs in the eastern U.S. that can only be distinguished by their breeding calls. However, Cope's Gray Treefrog is the only gray treefrog species found in Florida.
Breeding:
March to August, lays eggs in a surface film (20-40 eggs at a time) attached to emergent wetland plants. Breeding call is a fast, high pitched trill. To hear frog calls, visit the USGS Frog Call Lookup and select the species you want to hear from the common name drop-down list.
Diet:
Beetles, caterpillars, crickets, flies, roaches, and other insects
Habitats:
Found in the panhandle and northern Florida, usually in trees in hardwood forest areas within a few hundred yards of breeding sites. Breeds in marshes, bogs, swamp edges, and flooded ditches.
Map by Monica E. McGarrity - may be used freely for education.
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