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| Banded Robber Frog photo by Khristian Venegas Valencia Photo used under CC-by-NC license granted in this iNaturalist record |
The Banded Robber Frog (Pristimantis taeniatus) is a small, forest dwelling robber frog of Central America. It is also known as the Banded Rain Frog, but I prefer the name Robber Frog for this genus to avoid confusion with the many other "rain" frogs around the world.
This species is found from the southern tip of Costa Rica through the lowlands of Panama and into the lowlands of northern Colombia. Although it has "banded" in the name this species is generally rather nondescript tan or orange frog with warty skin, flattened toe pads and a dark marking posterior to the eye. Unfortunately, that is a description that fits hundreds of species of frogs in the genera Diasporus, Eleutherodactylus, Pristimantis and Craugastor. These Central American Robber frogs can be very difficult to tell apart visually. That is why I have had to use a creative commons licensed photo from iNaturalist for this post - I don't know if any of the "robber frogs" I saw in Panama are this species or not because I didn't see any calling.
Fortunately, this species a fairly distinct call quite different from the similar species in this area. The call is a slow dry trill, almost a slow creaking call. It stands out fairly easily in the lowland rainforests of Central Panama where I recorded these individuals.
It is difficult to record though since it calls very sporadically and unpredictably so I have had to remove some of the long periods of quiet between the calls.
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© Chris Harrison 2024
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