Smilisca sordida
Silhouette: Dmitry Bogdanov (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The Veragua cross-banded tree frog (Smilisca sordida) is a species of frog in the family Hylidae found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, rivers, plantations, rural gardens, urban areas, heavily degraded former forests, and canals and ditches. Scientists have observed it as high in the hills as 1525 meters above sea level.
The adult male frog measures 36.2 mm long in snout-vent length and the adult female frog 56.3 mm. The skin of the dorsum is gray-brown in color and the belly is lighter. It has purple skin near the groin. There are light marks over the eyes and stripes on the legs.
The tadpoles are 3.2 cm long. They live at the bottom of the stream and hold onto the rocks with their mouths. The sister species of S. sordida is Smilisca sila, the Panama cross-banded tree frog. Both species utilize a basin construction reproductive model. Wikipedia →
Recording0:06
Costa Rica · 2025
© Emmanuel Rodríguez Rojas · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:14
Costa Rica · 2026
© Amaël Borzée · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Piedras Blancas National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Corcovado National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 3 | Tenorio Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 4 | Arenal Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 5 | Braulio Carrillo National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 6 | Carara National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 7 | Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 8 | Tortuguero National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 9 | La Amistad International Park (Panama) | 🇵🇦 Panama |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Little Rock Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | La Paz Waterfall Gardens | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Drab Tree Frog sighting in Arenal Volcano National Park on a given day, based on 33 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 22nd most-seen of the 39 amphibians we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and February
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Drab Tree Frog in Arenal Volcano National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July and September–November, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Drab Tree Frog sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is mostly seen at night.
4th of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Drab Tree Frog sightings, Arenal Volcano National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Piedras Blancas National Park (Costa Rica, about 40%), Corcovado National Park (Costa Rica, about 20%) and Tenorio Volcano National Park (Costa Rica, about 10%).
Same genus: Smilisca
The closest relatives of the Drab Tree Frog that you can see in Arenal Volcano National Park (genus Smilisca, Cross-banded Tree Frogs) are Masked Tree Frog (about 50%), Eastern Masked Tree Frog (about 10%) and Mexican Smilisca (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Drab Tree Frog is recorded against all the amphibians logged in Arenal Volcano National Park (33 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
