Frog Calls — Identify Utah Frogs by Sound

Boreal Chorus Frog

Run your fingernail slowly along the teeth of a plastic comb — that dry, ratcheting zip is almost exactly what a Boreal Chorus Frog sounds like. It's an improbably loud sound for an animal the size of your thumbnail. In early spring, wetlands across Utah's mountains and valleys can fill with hundreds of them calling simultaneously, producing a wall of sound that you feel as much as hear. Once you know this call, you will never mistake it for anything else.

Listen for it: March through May, from montane meadows down to valley marshes, beginning as soon as snow melts from the edges of ponds.

American Bullfrog

Deep, resonant, and almost comically large — the Bullfrog's call is the lowest-pitched sound any Utah frog produces. Most people describe it as the mooing of a distant cow, or as a slow, bass-register thrum: jug-o-rum, jug-o-rum. There's nothing else in a Utah wetland that sounds remotely like it. Males call from warm, still water with emergent vegetation from late spring through midsummer.

Worth noting: the Bullfrog is a non-native species in Utah and its presence puts pressure on native frogs. Hearing one is useful ecological data — consider logging it on iNaturalist.

Northern Leopard Frog

A low, slow snore followed by short grunting chuckles — some people describe it as the sound of rubbing two inflated rubber balloons together. It's not a pretty call; it's almost lazy-sounding, like a sleepy argument. Leopard Frogs call from the edges of slow-moving streams and irrigation ditches, and males sometimes keep at it well into the night. The rhythm is what gives it away: that drawn-out groan, then a pause, then a few short croaks.

Woodhouse's Toad

Jarring, nasal, and insistent — Woodhouse's Toad has a call that many people find genuinely unnerving when heard unexpectedly at midnight near a river campsite. It's a bleating, buzzy wail that seems too loud for the animal producing it. Once you've heard it described as "a sheep being startled," you won't be able to un-hear that comparison. These toads call from late spring through midsummer near rivers, ponds, and irrigated fields across the state.

Great Basin Spadefoot

The Great Basin Spadefoot is a gambler — it spends most of the year underground and erupts into activity only after heavy rains fill desert pools. When conditions are right, the result is extraordinary: hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Spadefoots calling from a single temporary pool in a single night. The call itself is short, explosive, and nasal — a rapid, almost duck-like quacking grunt repeated urgently. The sheer volume of a Spadefoot chorus after a summer storm is one of Utah's great wildlife spectacles.

Listen for it: May through August in the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau, within 24–48 hours of significant rainfall.

Red-spotted Toad

High-pitched, clear, and musical — more like a bird trill than anything you'd typically associate with a toad. Red-spotted Toads call from rocky outcroppings near seeps and streams in canyon country, their notes ringing off the walls in a way that can be surprisingly difficult to locate. The call has a pure, almost flute-like quality that catches you off guard. Listen near canyon streams and desert springs on warm evenings from April through August.

Canyon Treefrog

Loud, explosive, and coming at you from above — the Canyon Treefrog calls from rock faces, canyon walls, and boulders beside streams, not from the water itself. The call is a rapid, forceful series of blaring notes, sometimes described as a goat's bleat delivered at high volume. When a group of males calls simultaneously from the walls of a sandstone canyon, the sound ricochets and overlaps in a way that makes it nearly impossible to pinpoint individuals. It's one of the most evocative sounds in the Utah desert.