Green Treefrog

​Identification:

Green Treefrogs are very well-named. Adults are typically bright green in color, often lightly flecked with gold above, with a narrow white stripe running nearly to the groin on each side of the body. Like our other treefrogs, this species can change color and become dull green, khaki, or even brown in response to changes in temperature or stress levels. Green Treefrogs average slightly smaller than Barking Treefrogs (to about 2 1/2 inches) and have a much more slender build.

Until the early 1980’s Green Treefrogs could be found only in cypress swamps and other extensive wetlands bordering the Mississippi River in Fulton, Hickman, Carlisle, and Ballard counties. Since then, they have spread steadily eastward, reaching the Henderson area by 1989 and Breckinridge County along the Ohio River by the early 2000s. Now they are beginning to show up even in the west end of Louisville! Starting around 2010 Green Treefrogs began showing up in and around the Minor Clark Fish Hatchery near Cave Run Dam in northeastern Kentucky and are now fairly common in the Cave Run Lake area.

Green Treefrogs call from May through mid-August from just about any shallow permanent body of water with plenty of emergent vegetation. Buttonbush swamps and beaver ponds are especially favored. A large chorus of males can easily drown out the sounds made by other kinds of frogs. The call is a loud, nasal, rapidly-repeated quank.