When you’re exploring Kansas wetlands in spring, one of the first signals of emerging wildlife is sound—hundreds of frogs calling across ponds and marshes.
Kansas hosts an impressive diversity of amphibians, with 22 species of native frogs representing everything from massive bullfrogs to tiny tree frogs barely an inch long.
Whether you’re a naturalist wanting to identify what you’re hearing, an educator teaching about local wildlife, or simply curious about the amphibians sharing your landscape, understanding the types of frogs in Kansas will deepen your connection to the state’s ecological richness.
This guide walks you through each species you can encounter, how to recognize them, and where to find them.
1. American Bullfrog
The American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) stands as Kansas’s largest frog species, with adults reaching 3.6 to 6 inches in body length and occasionally weighing up to 1.5 pounds.
You’ll recognize them by their olive-green coloration, sometimes mottled with gray or brown patches, and their fully webbed back feet. What sets bullfrogs apart from nearly every other Kansas frog is their appetite—they’ll eat almost anything that fits in their mouths, including spiders, fish, small birds, and even small mammals.
Their legendary deep call, audible across considerable distances, sounds remarkably like a bull bellowing, which is how they earned their name.
Pro Tip: Bullfrogs can remain in the tadpole stage for multiple years, unlike most Kansas frog species that transform in just one season. This extended development makes them prolific breeders.
You can find American Bullfrogs statewide in Kansas, wherever permanent bodies of water exist. They prefer large ponds, streams, and lakes with shallow breeding areas rimmed by vegetation.
During mating season, males select and aggressively defend territories in shallow water, and females choose males by entering their defended zones. Their calls can be heard from May through August, both day and night.
2. Green Frog
The Green Frog (Rana clamitans) is a medium to large frog ranging from 3 to 4 inches long, displaying olive to olive-brown coloration that may be marked with small black spots.
The identifying feature that distinguishes them from similar species is their dorsal ridge—the ridge running down their back doesn’t extend fully; instead, it wraps around the tympanum (eardrum area). Their bellies and throats are white, and like male American Bullfrogs, mature male Green Frogs develop bright yellow throats.
Key Insight: Green Frogs are actually at the edge of their continental range in Kansas, making Kansas an important outpost for this species’ northern distribution.
This species inhabits the southeastern corner of Kansas, with currently known populations occurring only in the Spring River Basin in Cherokee County.
They prefer streams, brooks, and adjacent backwater areas, though you might also encounter them along the edges of small impoundments and water-filled ditches. Because of their limited range, seeing a Green Frog in Kansas is a special find worth documenting.
3. Northern Leopard Frog
The Northern Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens) showcases the characteristic spotting pattern that leopard frogs are named for, but you’ll notice something distinctive—these frogs often appear bright green, more so than their cousins. Adults range from 2 to 4 inches, with females typically larger than males.
They possess leopard-like blotches on their backs, and lighter ridges run down their sides. Some individuals display a light yellow stripe along the upper jaw.
Northern Leopard Frogs occupy slow-moving bodies of water with abundant vegetation—look for them in ponds, lakes, streams, and marshes. During spring breeding season, males float in shallow pools and emit low calls resembling soft snoring; if startled or captured, they produce an alarming high, loud screaming call.
These frogs eat various prey including worms, crickets, and flies, and in one notable study, researchers documented a Northern Leopard Frog consuming a bat.
Important Note: Northern Leopard Frog populations are declining across many areas, likely due to a combination of habitat loss, drought, introduced fish species, environmental contaminants, and disease. Their population status makes documentation particularly valuable.
4. Plains Leopard Frog
The Plains Leopard Frog (Lithobates blairi) represents Kansas’s most abundant leopard frog species, found throughout the entire state.
These medium-sized frogs display tan coloration covered in dark spots, with a distinctive dorsal ridge running down their backs that features a break and indent near the hips. During summer rains, you’re more likely to encounter them, and these frogs are primarily nocturnal.
Plains Leopard Frogs breed in spring and summer, using lakes, ponds, and various freshwater sources. Males produce distinctive chuckling sounds to attract females, and eggs are laid in large ball clumps in the water.
A single female can lay several thousand eggs across breeding seasons, making this one of Kansas’s most productive frog species. You’ll find them both on land and in water, making them more versatile habitat-users than many frog species.
5. Southern Leopard Frog
The Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus) occupies eastern Kansas, representing a medium to large frog with brown or green base coloration speckled with spots throughout their body.
A distinctive white spot on the tympanum (the rounded area behind the eye) helps confirm identification. Their dorsal ridge runs straight down the back, a key difference from Plains Leopard Frogs whose ridge has a break.
This species frequents various freshwater habitats across eastern Kansas, and during breeding, males emit distinctive chuckling sounds that differ from other leopard frogs’ calls. Like other leopard frogs, they’re proficient hunters, consuming a variety of small invertebrates and other small animals.
6. Pickerel Frog
The Pickerel Frog (Lithobates palustris) is notable for being Kansas’s only naturally poisonous frog, though the toxin isn’t considered fatal to humans.
This medium-sized frog displays distinctive square spots in four rows down its back, contrasting sharply with its reddish or orange coloration underneath the legs and belly. They typically reach about 2 inches in length, though they can grow larger.
Common Mistake: Many people avoid Pickerel Frogs unnecessarily out of fear. While their skin secretions can irritate, they won’t harm you unless ingested or introduced into your eyes. Simply handling them and washing your hands is perfectly safe.
Pickerel Frogs inhabit various freshwater habitats, particularly those with clear, cool water. You can find them in and around streams, small ponds, and boggy areas, often in more terrestrial settings than purely aquatic frog species.
7. Crawfish Frog
The Crawfish Frog (Rana areolatus) gets its distinctive name from its remarkable behavior—it inhabits crawfish burrows, spending much of its life underground.
These medium to large frogs display light coloration heavily covered with large dark spots and feature a white dorsal ridge running down their sides with a relatively small tympanum.
This species occurs in the eastern edge of Kansas, primarily in low-lying areas including meadows, prairies, brush fields, and wherever crawfish populations thrive.
Crawfish Frogs breed from late February through April in fishless ponds, with males gathering to call loudly—their deep calls sound remarkably like hog vocalizations. Females can lay up to 7,000 eggs in large 5- to 6-inch clumps, and the pond must persist through mid-June to allow tadpoles to complete their transformation.
Key Insight: Because Crawfish Frogs spend so much time underground, they’re rarely observed. Your best chance of encountering one is during their spring breeding season when they gather at breeding ponds.
8. Blanchard’s Cricket Frog
The Blanchard’s Cricket Frog (Acris blanchardi) represents one of Kansas’s tiniest frogs, averaging just 1.5 inches long, with females slightly larger. Their remarkable feature isn’t their size—it’s their jumping ability.
Despite being minuscule, these frogs can leap 5 to 6 feet, an extraordinary distance relative to their body length. Color variation is extensive, ranging from black, yellow, and orange to red, all on backgrounds of brown or green.
You’ll find Blanchard’s Cricket Frogs throughout Kansas near permanent water sources including slow-moving streams, lake margins, pond edges, and marshy areas. They earned their name from their breeding call, which sounds like two pebbles or marbles being clicked together, repeated for about 20 beats.
Important Note: Blanchard’s Cricket Frogs are declining in parts of their range and are considered threatened. They face habitat loss, chemical contamination, competition, and pressure from their short average lifespan—most individuals only live about one year.
9. Northern Cricket Frog
The Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans) represents another diminutive species, growing to similar sizes as their Blanchard’s cousins. These small, flattened frogs display variable coloration ranging from gray to dark brown with tan, red, brown, or green blotches or stripes down the back.
A dark triangle is usually visible between the eyes, and their warty dorsal skin contrasts with smoother ventral surfaces.
Like all Cricket frogs, Northern Cricket Frogs are seldom found outside breeding season, seeking refuge under cover and only emerging after rains or humid nights to forage for small invertebrates. Males call day and night from late spring through summer, producing the distinctive clicking sounds that give the species its name.
10. Spring Peeper
The Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) is famously the first frog heard each year in Kansas, with males gathering at small ephemeral (temporary) pools by the hundreds following winter rains from February to April.
These tiny chorus frogs measure only about 1.5 inches long. What distinguishes Spring Peepers from other small chorus frogs is the distinctive X-shaped marking on their backs.
Pro Tip: Spring Peepers are often easier to find by listening than by looking—their high-pitched, repeated “peep” calls are unmistakable. Once you locate the calling chorus, you can observe them in their shallow breeding pools.
Found in the southeastern corner of Kansas, Spring Peepers inhabit forest floors and low tree trunks, though during spring breeding season they congregate in temporary ponds. The intensity of their calling belies their tiny size—hundreds of peeping males can create an overwhelming chorus.
11. Boreal Chorus Frog
The Boreal Chorus Frog (Pseudacris maculata) is brown with three dark lateral stripes or spots running down its back, distinguished by a white upper lip and reaching lengths up to 1.5 inches.
Found across Kansas, these frogs typically inhabit heavily vegetated bodies of water but also require shallow open areas for breeding.
Their call sounds similar to Spring Peepers but is notably more tinny and mechanical compared to the musical whistle of Spring Peeper calls. Like all chorus frogs, they’re seldom found outside breeding season, emerging only after rains or humid nights to forage. They breed from February into May in temporary wetlands.
12. Western Chorus Frog
The Western Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata) is the largest of Kansas’s chorus frogs at up to 1.9 inches long. In Kansas woodlands, you can find them in woodland ponds, marshes, swamps, meadows, and grassy pools, showing a preference for breeding in bodies of water without fish, including flooded fields, beaver ponds, roadside ditches, marshes, and shallow lakes.
Western Chorus Frogs are secretive and nocturnal, making them difficult to spot despite their size advantage over other chorus frogs. Your best strategy for locating one is using your ears—listen for their unique call, which is rapid and relatively short, resembling the sound of running your finger over the teeth of a comb. Females attach small egg masses to underwater vegetation for incubation and development.
13. Great Plains Narrow-Mouthed Toad
The Great Plains Narrow-Mouthed Toad (Gastrophryne olivacea), despite its name, is actually classified as a frog rather than a true toad. This distinctive frog is typically 1 inch long, though females may be slightly larger.
Its defining characteristic is the fold of skin running across the back of its head, combined with a narrow, pointed head that facilitates burrowing. Coloration varies from gray to brown to reddish-brown, and the dorsal skin is warty while the ventral surface is smoother.
Important Note: Although named “toad,” this amphibian belongs to the narrow-mouthed frog family (Microhylidae), a large family of burrowing, secretive frogs native to multiple continents. These frogs are mostly ant eaters, and this species feeds heavily on ants along with termites, small beetles, and spiders.
You can find the Great Plains Narrow-Mouthed Toad in grassy areas, on rocky slopes, and in rock-filled canyons across the eastern two-thirds of Kansas. They hide under rocks and sometimes share burrows with tarantulas in a fascinating mutualistic association.
Males produce a distinctive nasal buzz call lasting only 1 to 4 seconds—several calling males together sound like bees or toy airplanes. They breed in summer, converging at temporary water bodies during rainy nights, with females laying up to 850 eggs on the water surface. Tadpoles hatch within 2 days and transform into toadlets within 30 to 60 days.
14. Plains Spadefoot
The Plains Spadefoot (Spea bombifrons) is a small to medium-sized toad displaying gray, brown, or tan coloration. These specialized frogs have a raised boss (bump) between their eyes and are named for the spade-like projection on their hind feet, which they use to burrow rapidly into soil.
Key Insight: Unlike true toads and narrow-mouthed frogs, spadefoot frogs can dig burrows using their front limbs, a unique adaptation that makes them efficient at creating and modifying their underground refuges.
Plains Spadefoots occur everywhere in Kansas except the southeastern corner. Males produce a snore-like growl call during mating season, though some far southern populations produce shorter calls resembling small dog barks.
These frogs spend considerable time underground, emerging primarily during breeding season when they gather in large choruses after heavy rains in temporary ponds.
15. Great Plains Toad
The Great Plains Toad (Anaxyrus cognatus) is a medium-sized toad displaying brown, gray, or green base coloration with large, paired, elongated blotches that may be black, brown, or green.
These blotches contrast sharply with lighter background or border colors and contain numerous small warts. A distinctive V-shaped cranial crest appears on the head with a boss (bump) between the eyes.
You can find Great Plains Toads everywhere in Kansas except the eastern border area. They frequent a variety of habitats but seem most abundant in sandy areas. Like most toads, they remain hidden and buried during the day and are most active on humid nights, often found foraging under lights that attract insects.
Pro Tip: The Great Plains Toad produces one of Kansas’s most distinctive calls—a loud, long, pulsing, high-pitched trill with a jack-hammer quality that can last from 5 seconds up to a minute.
Breeding occurs at the beginning of the year through early summer in fish-containing waters, with males producing their iconic trill sounds. Females can lay 10,000 eggs, which attach to vegetation in the water and hatch within about a week.
16. Woodhouse’s Toad
Woodhouse’s Toad (Anaxyrus woodhousii) displays variable coloration ranging from yellowish-brown to greenish-gray, often featuring a distinctive light stripe down the middle of the back. These medium-sized toads reach up to 4 inches in length in Kansas.
This species is highly nocturnal and most active during warm, humid weather. During winter, Woodhouse’s Toads burrow deep into the ground below the frost line, with some populations burrowing even deeper as frost penetrates farther into the soil.
They breed in spring and early summer, with males producing a distinctive nasal, buzzing trill lasting between 3 and 10 seconds.
17. American Toad
The American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus) is a medium-sized toad with rough, warty skin that’s primarily brown but may include black, gray, or red coloration.
Their undersides are speckled, and the parotid gland (a large gland behind the eye that produces defensive secretions) doesn’t touch or connect via a spur to the cranial crest—this distinguishes them from other Kansas toad species.
Common Mistake: Many people believe toad toxins are extremely dangerous, but American Toads produce defensive secretions primarily to discourage predators. Simply handling them and washing your hands afterward is completely safe.
American Toads are common throughout the eastern third of Kansas in diverse habitats including pine forests, grasslands, fields, gardens, and urban areas. They prefer areas with sandy soil, moisture, and leaf litter where they can burrow effectively.
Most American Toads don’t survive more than one year in the wild, though some have lived to 10 years old, and captive-raised individuals have reached 36 years.
You’ll recognize their breeding call immediately—a high, musical trill that can last over 30 seconds. American Toads breed at the beginning of the year through early summer, with females laying as many as 20,000 eggs attached to vegetation in fish-containing waters, which hatch within about a week. They’re highly terrestrial and only enter water during breeding.
