ICommon Frog > Rana temporaria
Description: Up to 10cm long. Ground colour of upperside ranges from very dark brown (such as specimen pictured here), through greyish-brown and olive green to yellow or even brick-red. Underside ranges from white to yellow, speckled with brown. The dark patches on the back vary, but there is always a dark patch, enclosing the eardrum, just behind the eye. The legs usually have dark transverse bands. There is a prominent skin fold on each side of the body.

Food and habits: Eats slugs, worms, snails, and many other invertebrates on land, but doesn't feed in the water. Spends most of its time in damp places on land and moves to ponds and ditches to breed in Spring. Frogs are very noisy at this time, when the croaking males may sound like the roar of distant motorcycles. The gelatinous egg masses (frogspawn) give rise to tadpoles that turn into little frogs in about three months. Winter is passed in a dormant state, often in mud at the bottom of ponds.

Habitat and range: Breeds in ponds and other still or slow-moving water: garden ponds are important habitats now that many farm and village ponds have disappeared. Common throughout the UK.

Similar species: None in the UK. The only possible confusion would be with the Common Toad (Bufo bufo), but this can be distinguished by its covering of knobbly warts all over the skin.

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