Our animal of the day is the Common Frog. While you may think them pretty common, there are actually a ton of interesting things about the Common Frog that deserve some recognition. 

Here’s everything you need to know about this common amphibian. 

Characteristics: 

• The Common Frog comes in a wide variety of colors, ranging from green to brown to red or yellow.
• They have smooth skin, a dark mask behind the eye, and long, dark-banded back legs

Habitat: 

• Common Frogs breed in ponds in the spring and spend the majority of the year foraging in woodlands, gardens, hedgerows, and tussocky grassland.
• They are common backyard pond residents, where they lay their eggs in large ‘rafts’ of spawn.

Diet: 

• Common frogs consume a diverse array of invertebrates and even tiny amphibians.
• Common frogs provide an appealing diet for a wide variety of species, making them vulnerable to predators on the land, underwater, and from the air.
• Small mammals, reptiles, and snakes, as well as water shrews, otters, and birds such as herons, are their predators.

Breeding

• During the breeding season, male frogs create a low purring sound to lure females, who are generally silent. Their spawn (group of eggs) looks like jelly and is laid in clumps in freshwater.
• Male common frogs have nuptial pads on their front foot to assist them in grasping females during the breeding season.
• A female frog can lay up to 4,000 eggs in a single spring!
• According to the weather, frogs can spawn as early as December or as late as April. Tadpoles metamorphosis into froglets after hatching in approximately 14 weeks.