Sounds of Rana Draytonii - California Red-legged Frog

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Adult male, Fresno County

Breeding pond, Monterey County

Breeding pond, Contra Costa County

More pictures and information

Advertisement Calls

An advertisement call is the most well-known call of a frog. It is produced by a male during the breeding season to attract females of his own species. It can also serve an agressive function to defend his calling site by warning rival males of his presence. Frogs usually make the calls around bodies of water that are suitable for breeding and egg laying. These calls can be heard during the evening and at night, and sometimes during daylight at the peak of the breeding season.

The advertisement call of the California Red-legged Frog can be described as a weak series of 5 - 7 notes, sounding like uh-uh-uh-uh-uh, lasting 1 - 3 seconds. After the series there is sometimes a last note which is similar to a growl or groan.The calls are made during the day and at night in the air or underwater and are easily missed.

The following sounds were all recorded on a sunny morning in early March from the edge of a pond in Monterey County. The pond at the time of the recordings is shown to the left. Air temperature was around 48 degrees with a light wind. Birds, wind noise, and water flowing into the pond from a small seep can be heard in the background.

Many thanks to Susan Whitford and David Keegan and the Santa Lucia Conservancy for their generous assistance in helping me make these recordings.

This is a 5 second recording of a series of two advertisement calls of a single male frog.

This is a 2 second recording of one advertisement call of a single frog, which includes the growl at the end that is characteristic of this species. (Compare to Rana aurora.)

This is a 29 second recording of the calls of two or three frogs, including some ending growls.

This is a 27 second recording of the calls of one frog who is joined at the end by another.

This is a 29 second recording of the calls of two or three frogs, including some ending growls. A loud Red-winged Blackbird sings in the background.

This is a 30 second recording of the calls of two or three frogs, including some ending growls.

The following sounds were all recorded on a sunny afternoon in early March from the edge of a pond in Contra Costa County. The pond at the time of the recordings is shown to the left on the bottom. Air temperature was around 60 degrees with a moderate wind.

This is a 22 second recording of the calls of two frogs, including an ending growl. Red-tailed hawks can be heard calling in the background along with other distant singing birds, insects, and wind noise.

This is a 4 second recording of one call and an ending growl.

Waveform and Sonogram

This is a recording of the advertisement calls of a California Red-legged Frog recorded during the day in Contra Costa County. The image on the right is a visual representation of this call. Click on it to see a larger image. Click here for information about how to read the waveform and sonogram images.

You can listen to more recordings of California Red-legged Frogs on this cd:

Carlos Davidson - Frog and Toad Calls of the Pacific Coast - Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

and on the cd that comes with this book:

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt, and Carlos Davidson - The Frogs and Toads of North America - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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