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Species authority page

Gray treefrog

Hyla versicolor · Frogs and toads · Amphibians

Gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor): 3-5 cm (record 6 cm); warty skin, usually gray with black back blotches, or green, brown or pearl-gray; colour changes with background, season and humidity. Light spot beneath each eye. 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.

Scientific name
Hyla versicolor
Family
Hylidae
In North America
Native
Range
Southeastern Canada from southern Manitoba to New Brunswick, south through the northeastern and south-central US to North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, eastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana, west to North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, eastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma.
Biology

How to identify it

3-5 cm (record 6 cm); warty skin, usually gray with black back blotches, or green, brown or pearl-gray; colour changes with background, season and humidity. [1][2]

Light spot beneath each eye. [1][2]

Orange to golden-yellow, black-speckled concealed hindleg surfaces; white belly. [1][2]

Large toe pads. [1][2]

Identical to Cope's gray treefrog; call is a slower, more musical trill. [1][2]

Compared with the cope's gray treefrog: Indistinguishable by sight; faster, higher-pitched trill. [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 gray treefrog before you act. Compared with the cope's gray treefrog: Indistinguishable by sight; faster, higher-pitched trill.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Wooded and forested habitats on the ground, shrubs or trees; rests in tree holes, under bark or in rotten logs; breeds in still shallow woodland ponds, marshes, puddles and swamps. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Most active at dusk and at night, especially in wet weather; inactive from fall through early spring. [1][2]

Males are territorial when calling; adults may eat smaller gray treefrogs. [1][2]

Migrates up to several hundred metres to breeding pools; breeds spring or summer (usually May in the north); larvae metamorphose within 2 months. [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

Southeastern Canada from southern Manitoba to New Brunswick, south through the northeastern and south-central US to North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, eastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana, west to North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, eastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma.

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