Southern Brown Tree Frog

This is one of the most common frogs we find in our area, the Southern Brown Tree Frog, Litoria ewingi. See it's gorgeous padded toes, that's how you know its a tree frog. It's colours are highly variable, they can even have green on them. That orange in the groin is one of its identifying features. This is a particularly fat Southern Brown Tree Frog.

 

We never get tired of finding frogs in the garden, there is something about their smooth wet skin and wide eyes that is utterly enchanting. These frogs feed on flies, moths and mosquitoes, and are very welcome in our mosquito ridden backyard, we have a little pond made from an old bath to encourage their visits.

Even though its getting quite cold, we can still hear Southern Brown Tree Frogs calling, this species can breed all year round.  Only the male frogs call, their cree, cree, creeing, is a soothing soundtrack to our evenings. You can listen to the call, and find out more about the Southern Brown Tree Frog and other frogs of Australia at this wonderful website. I can also highly recommend the Museum of Victoria's Field guide app for helping identify species when you're out and about.