Frogs with very unusual calls

October 8, 2022 3:19 PM

Frogs with very unusual calls: These seven links (more inside) lead to short 30-second tracks of frog calls that you can play (at the bottom of each page), as well as photos of the frogs and a short description of their lifestyles. Motorbike Frog = these sound so much like motorbikes that in the past, some people have called the police to report motorbikes hooning around at 3am/4am only to have it turn out to be frogs.

Moaning Frog very eerie/creepy

Hooting Frog sounds like an owl

Quacking Frog sounds like a duck quacking

Whooping Frog sounds like a sound effect from a computer game

Northern Laughing Tree Frog

Bleating Froglet sounds like a sheep baaing

posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (16 comments total)

most annoying frog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI6nc3aH_pI
posted by wmo at 3:31 PM on October 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Great noises all around, but I'm commenting mainly to point out that "hooning" is a fantastic word!
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:50 PM on October 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

Widely known by their acronym FUC
posted by mubba at 4:23 PM on October 8, 2022

"The Hooning FUCs" would be a great band name.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:09 PM on October 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

I live right next to a creek so I hear a lot of frog noise in the summer... none of the ones in the samples though. Mostly bullfrogs and little high-pitched tree frogs. The past few weeks some shrill little fucker has taken up residence in the tree right outside my window, and makes the most ear-splitting, high-pitched continuous dt-dt-dt-dt-dt-dt-dt-dt-dt-dt sound from around noonish to dusk. I've had to close my window and turn on music or white noise so I can get some work done.

The moaning frog sample above really got my cats' attention!
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 6:08 PM on October 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

I have a recording of frogs from up in the Ogden Valley. Utah. I used it on my LG phone as the message notification. Such a dry clicking sound, almost like a fortune wheel passing over wooden points. My samsung phone doesnt't want to play it.
posted by Oyéah at 6:18 PM on October 8, 2022

The northern laughing tree frog, sounds like a parrot.
posted by Oyéah at 6:20 PM on October 8, 2022

Here in Puerto Rico there are apparently at least 17 different species of Coquí, whose calls range from the well-known “co-quí” of Coquí de la Montaña (Eleutherodactylus portoricensis) to the high-frequency chirp of Coquí Llanero. Here are a few more from a channel found thanks to this post: Coquí melodioso (Eleutherodactylus wightmanae), Coquí duende (Eleutherodactylus unicolor), Coquí caoba (Eleutherodactylus richmondi), Coquí Churí (Eleutherodactylus antillensis), Coquí Martillito, Coquí Pitito (Eleutherodactylus Cochranae), Coquí de las hierbas (Eleutherodactylus brittoni), Coquí de Hedrick (Eleutherodactylus hedricki). I often hear several of these species (now included) but their whistles and chirps are easy to tune out. Those bleating and moaning Australian frogs don’t sound quite as fun.
posted by mubba at 7:14 PM on October 8, 2022 [5 favorites]

I am here for this. The payoff is at the end of this comment.

One night during the early dark days of the pandemic, about 1:30 AM, I went walking outside during a heavy rain -- the perfect time for frogs.

I was looking for some gray tree frogs, but what I heard was unexpected, and led to me Googling [sheep frog].

Sure enough, there is a species called the sheep frog - but it lives in Central America and just the very southernmost part of Texas.

Note that this is a long drawn out BAAAAAAAAAaaaaa, not the short bleats linked above.

I posted a recording to iNaturalist, wondering if I'd discovered a dramatic example of species migration due to warming climate -- fear not, that wasn't it. It turns out it was an Eastern Narrowmouth Toad (not really a toad, just called that for some reason) (more fun video with frogs inflating and deflating while floating in a pond at night).


Here is what you came for, though: banjo frog. Or a more atmostpheric, more specific recording of Eastern banjo frogs. There are several other kinds.
posted by amtho at 7:22 PM on October 8, 2022 [12 favorites]

Mubba, last year my wife and I visited Puerto Rico and stayed in an eco lodge in El Yunque. I really enjoyed hearing the coquís, but the owners stressed that we needed to shut the doors at night because we would sleep at all if one got in the room.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 7:55 PM on October 8, 2022

For the enthusiast.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:36 PM on October 8, 2022

Peripheral links, not directly relevant, but interesting/funny I hope:
Song of the Muppet Banjo Frog
And, kind of a parody of albums like the one hydrophonic linked to, They Might Be Giants' Turtle Songs of North America
posted by JHarris at 12:06 AM on October 9, 2022

The call of the Michigan Jay Frog.
posted by fairmettle at 3:28 AM on October 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

I left off the best banjo frog link! You guys, it's the best.

Although JHarris' link made me cry a little. That scene made a much bigger impression on my now than the first time I saw it.
posted by amtho at 8:20 AM on October 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Speaking of amusing frog sounds, I’ll shamelessly plug my amateurish archive of the 1988 Mississippi Frog Songs cassette tape.
posted by kiblinger at 11:56 AM on October 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

Hey, your site has long been a favorite of mine, and I've used it in trainings for the NAMP, now LAMP.

Thanks again!
posted by eustatic at 4:05 AM on October 10, 2022