Pseudacris cadaverina
Silhouette: Beth Reinke · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The California tree frog or California chorus frog (Pseudacris cadaverina) is a "true" tree frog (family Hylidae) from southern California (USA) and Baja California (Mexico). Until recently, the California tree frog was classified in the genus Hyla.
It is a cryptically colored species of tree frog, often resembling granitic stones. It is grey or light brown on its dorsum with darker blotches, and has a whitish venter. It is yellow on the undersides of its legs, groin, and lower abdomen; males of the species have a dusky-yellow throat. The California tree frog has conspicuous toe webbing and pads, and its dorsal skin is roughened and warty. It is 2.9–5 cm (1.1–2.0 in) long from snout to vent.
This species is most likely to occur along streams with abundant boulders and cobbles in their channels. Its distribution is spotty and localized. These frogs are easily handled. California tree frog is not considered threatened by IUCN: it is a relatively common species with broad distribution, and there are no major threats, except perhaps UV radiation that reduces embryonic survival. Another possible threat to this frog species is habit fragmentation... Wikipedia →
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Mexico · 2022
© Jorge H. Valdez · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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United States · 2023
© Ashwin Narayanan · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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United States · 2025
© Moses J. Michelsohn · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joshua Tree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a California Treefrog sighting in Los Angeles on a given day, based on 235 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 6th most-seen of the 8 amphibians we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and June–October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a California Treefrog in Los Angeles on a given day, against under 5% in May and November–March, the lowest months. Those are among Los Angeles's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain a month against 75 mm in February.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most California Treefrog sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Los Angeles, in our data
Los Angeles is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate California Treefrog sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the California Treefrog is recorded against all the amphibians logged in Los Angeles (235 verified sightings), 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.
