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Bird-voiced treefrog

Hyla avivoca · Frogs and toads · Amphibians

Bird-voiced treefrog (Hyla avivoca): Small: males 2.8-3.9 cm, females 3.2-5.2 cm snout-vent. Brown to gray mixed with green and black dorsal blotches; smooth skin. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Bird-voiced treefrog — verified North Ground species photograph
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Scientific name
Hyla avivoca
Family
Hylidae
In North America
Native
Range
Southern Illinois and western Kentucky to the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, eastern Georgia and adjacent South Carolina, with disjunct populations in Louisiana, Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. Not in Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Small: males 2.8-3.9 cm, females 3.2-5.2 cm snout-vent. [1][2]

Brown to gray mixed with green and black dorsal blotches; smooth skin. [1][2]

Small white spot below each eye. [1][2]

Limbs with dark stripes; belly pale with dark spots in front. [1][2]

Birdlike whistled call. [1][2]

Compared with the cope's gray treefrog: Warty skin and orange-yellow hidden hindleg surfaces; trill rather than birdlike whistle. [1][2]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a bird-voiced treefrog before you act. Compared with the cope's gray treefrog: Warty skin and orange-yellow hidden hindleg surfaces; trill rather than birdlike whistle.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Permanent wooded swamps (tupelo, cypress, birch, buttonbush, vine tangles) bordering rivers and streams; intolerant of impoundments that flood habitat. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Seldom observed outside the breeding period; males call from trees, shrubs and vines in or beside water. [1][2]

Mostly solitary except for breeding; can climb high in trees. [1][2]

Lays several hundred eggs in small clusters in spring or summer; larvae metamorphose in about a month. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Southern Illinois and western Kentucky to the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, eastern Georgia and adjacent South Carolina, with disjunct populations in Louisiana, Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. Not in Canada.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology