Baja California Treefrog

In springtime, these native frogs’ calls are easily heard in the Santa Ynez Canyon where the creek sluices the Santa Monica Mountains as it tumbles nearly 2,000 feet down to the Pacific near the interchange of Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.

You may already know that Hollywood adopted the sound of this species as the “go to” sound for frogs in movie soundtracks. Next time you hear the “ribbit” sound in a film, think of these little frogs in Southern California. (A similar substitution has also occurred with the sound of the Bald Eagle in soundtracks: it is frequently the call of a Red Tailed Hawk which is overdubbed for the less appealing sound of the Eagle.)

Here’s a view from inside our living room of the frog (it’s facing downward). The silhouette illuminates the four rear toes more clearly. It also shows gel-like foot pad prints on the glass.

A more traditional view of the frog’s shape is seen in the next picture. The body of this frog is approximately 1.5 inches long. It’s harder to estimate how long the legs are.

As frogs are found in fossils dating to 45-55 million years ago, they’ve had more than a geologic a minute to evolve and adapt.

Earlier this year, when we had a pitcher of alstroemeria lilies on our patio table, this frog appeared on the lip of the vase. I think it is also a Baja California Treefrog. Based on this primer from the National Park Service, it’s likely that this green-hued frog is a male, and that the frog photographed at the top of this blog post (the one sporting stippled brown, black, and wheat colors) is a female.