Source: OCSE

2. Community leadership and sustainability


2.4 Activities

The FrogWatch Census is an annual community frog monitoring program where volunteers of all ages survey frog species across the ACT by listening for their calls.

Before you go out in the field, learn about frog identification from the comfort of your couch!

Familiarise yourself with the frog calls below. When you’re ready, test your skills by taking the quiz.

Frog calls and photos kindly provided by the Ginninderra Catchment Group.

Common Eastern Froglet

Crinia signifera

‘crick, crick, crick, crick…’

Whistling Tree Frog

Litoria verreauxii

Whistling ‘cree… cree… cree…’

Peron’s Tree Frog

Litoria peronii

Maniacal cackle

Eastern Banjo Frog / Pobblebonk

Limnodynastes dumerilii

‘bonk’ or ‘plonk’

Striped Marsh Frog

Limnodynastes peronii

Clucking chicken ‘toc’

Spotted Burrowing Frog

Neobatrachus sudellae

Ascending ‘plop, plop, plop’

Broad-Palmed Rocket-Frog

Litoria latopalmata

Quacking duck ‘yap yap yap’

Spotted Marsh Frog

Limnodynastes tasmaniensis

‘uk, uk, uk’

Plains Froglet

Crinia parinsignifera

Squeaky gate ‘wwrreeeeeek’

Keen for more?

If you want to take your frog identification skills to the next level, check out Ginninderra Catchment Group’s Frog Identification Practice page. Here you can learn the calls of a wide range of frog species. You can even listen to sets of frog choruses and try to identify all the different species you can hear and their abundance!

You can also download the FrogID or Canberra Nature Map app to start recording your findings in the field! This handy guide has lots of information to help you out:

Frogs In Your Pocket


Parsons Bands Orchid. Source: OCSE.

Head into your backyard and take some photos of the plants and animals that you can find there. Upload your photos to the Canberra Nature Map app or website to help map species diversity in Canberra. You can also upload sound recordings!

You can suggest what species you think it might be – but don’t worry if you’re not sure, as trained volunteers manage the data uploaded to Canberra Nature Map to ensure it is accurate.

Information provided through the Canberra Nature Map app helps land managers know the health and location of a range of animal and plant species. Contributing is simple and has a big impact.

Want to learn more about Canberra Nature Map? Check out these stories!