__ __ _ _____ _ _ _
| \/ | ___| |_ __ _| ___(_) | |_ ___ _ __
| |\/| |/ _ \ __/ _` | |_ | | | __/ _ \ '__|
| | | | __/ || (_| | _| | | | || __/ |
|_| |_|\___|\__\__,_|_| |_|_|\__\___|_|
community weblog
American Toads
Have an amazing mating call. It's the men. Talking to the women. I hear it at night, and it's so soothing. It's about 15 seconds long and I call it a blue note.
According to google, a blue note is "a pitch that is sung or played at a slightly lower or microtonal pitch than standard Western tuning, usually landing somewhere between a quartertone and a semitone flat."
I could be wrong there, but it just fits.
Trying to figure out what was making this noise in my backyard took like an hour and half of research. If you do a search, on a prolonged trilling, you end up with birds. Specifically the screech owl. I think it's because birds are cuter than toads, and people are drawn to them, as far as study is concerned. I've got one of these guys in my backyard, too.
All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. Toads are land-based animals with warty skin. Frogs are aquatic, with smooth skin.
Toads sound good, late at night.
The American toad makes a plaintive call. I identify.
posted by valkane on Jun 05, 2026 at 10:13 AM
---------------------------
FROGS AND THEIR CALLS
almost perfect combination of sound, name and (sadly, still) picture for each...
posted by lalochezia at 10:39 AM
---------------------------
I don't have fifty seconds to spare; is there a transcript?
I KID! This is one of my favorite things. We've had a lot of rain recently, and the nights are full of frog-song. To the point that I forget frogs and toads are awake during the day, too: I was walking in the woods the other day and kept hearing cheerful (or possibly lovesick) little cheeps and chirps from the trees. I love it so much.
posted by mittens at 10:40 AM
---------------------------
I had KCRW playing in a different tab while I was listening to the toad. I didn't know that it was still playing so what I saw was the toad doing it's thing and Chances Are by Young gun Silver Fox was the soundtrack. In the way of such videos, I thought that the song was part of toad-thing.
posted by ashbury at 10:58 AM
---------------------------
I like how the back of the toad inflates before the front inflates and he starts making the noise.
posted by aubilenon at 11:00 AM
---------------------------
The bike trails around New Orleans have strips of swampy grass and trees next to them and bicycling through the evening is a symphony of toads screaming their availability to each other. It's always a delight to hear.
posted by egypturnash at 11:16 AM
---------------------------
My son and I captured a toad a few years ago and brought it home for a day. Surprisingly, the sound it made was some high pitched squeal and not a "ribbit" or call like this.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:21 AM
---------------------------
How does the toad keep that sound going for so long? He doesn't seem big enough to contain enough air to account for that.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:11 PM
---------------------------
The toads know how.
posted by scruss at 12:31 PM
---------------------------
It's because he's not exhaling! The air is circulating through his vocal sacs, but it's not like if we were singing a musical note, where eventually we run out of air.
posted by mittens at 12:33 PM
---------------------------
I took a picture of a toad singing in still water. The toad was not moving, the ripples were from his song. It's here. Seriously. Toad singing. With ripples. Go see! :)
posted by which_chick at 1:50 PM
---------------------------
We hear them around here (middle TN), too. When the crickets are singing at the same time, it's not so much night noises as a night orchestra.
posted by pianoblack at 2:07 PM
---------------------------
symphony of toads screaming their availability to each other. It's always a delight to hear.
but a guy sings his passion from a stoop one measly night and suddenly you get a visit from the Peace Officer
posted by runsrealgood at 2:21 PM
---------------------------
The air is circulating through his vocal sacs
So it's kind of like the circular breathing you hear horn players talking about?
Also: Watch the video again and imagine, at 0:43, that he's just spotted a receptive lady toad off to his right.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:38 PM
---------------------------
Hell yeah, Paul Slade, but we're into Louis Armstrong territory now. Louis relied on diaphragmatic breathing, rather than circular.
posted by valkane at 2:47 PM
---------------------------
The Smithsonian Folkways have excellent album of field recordings and narration about all sorts of frogs and toads. First released on vinyl in 1958! (There's a copy on YT if you want a preview)
There's such variation between them.
We got a bunch of them to use for one of our demos for Museum in a Box. Kids love listening to them, and the calls are (maybe not that, given what they're for in the wild) surprisingly good at penetrating and travelling across a busy conference hall at makerfaires.
(and I found this previously while hunting down those links)
posted by amcewen at 3:00 PM
---------------------------
this is one of those lowkey Best of the Web moments isn't it
posted by runsrealgood at 3:06 PM
---------------------------
Doubles as a dial-up router.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:12 PM
---------------------------
We have cane toads. They are invasive as hell and they're toxic and truly awful for the ecosystem but I love the sound they make at night.
posted by deadbilly at 7:59 PM
---------------------------
What a gem of a post, valkane. Your real life, and his!, and now all these other gorgeous shiny comments to treasure.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:44 PM
---------------------------
marveling again, over two decades later, what a gift this site and community are: thanks to you all!
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 6:06 AM
---------------------------