Forest Chirping FrogAdenomera hylaedactyla

Photo by user Sebastian2 from iNaturalist.org
Photo used under CC by NC Creative Commons License

Once again, I got a new frog species not through rigorous research and clawing my way through the swamp to find my target, but instead by standing next to a road and pointing my recorder out into the edge of a wooded grassy savanna and pressing record!   I uploaded my mystery call to iNaturalist, and lo and behold (6 years later), someone finally identified it - the Forest Chirping Frog (Adenomera hylaedactyla)!  So a new species and a new genus!

And once again, it is a recording of a species I have never seen, so I will borrow this wonderful photo from iNaturalist user Sebastian2 under the Creative Commons license he granted when uploading to iNaturalist.

The Forest Chirping Frog is a small frog with a loud call.  It is found throughout the Amazon Basin in South America, although I recorded mine in the Aripo Savannah area of Trinidad.  Looking at iNat records, it appears to occur throughout the Amazon basin in. a wide variety of habitats.

Adenomera hylaedactyla range map from the IUCN redlist

The call of this species seems to sound different based on your distance to the frogs and the quality of the recording. Many recordings I hear on iNaturalist.org or Xeno-canto.org sound like a short chip or peep, similar to other "chirping frogs".  However, my recording and many others I heard online sound more like a squeaky, raspy "creek" sound.  It may be an artifact of recording distance?

Adenomera hylaedactyla call

Always great to get a new recording lifer without leaving the house! 

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© Chris Harrison 2026