American Toad

The American toad is a common and widespread toad native to most of eastern North America, from the Canadian Maritimes and Great Lakes south to the Gulf Coast. Its skin is warty and colored in shades of brown, olive, or reddish tan, often with a lighter stripe running down the middle of the back, and prominent kidney-shaped paratoid glands behind each eye secrete a mild toxin, bufotoxin, that irritates the mouths of predators that attempt to eat it. Males call with a long, musical trill lasting several seconds, often heard in choruses at breeding ponds in early spring. The species is a habitat generalist, thriving in forests, fields, gardens, and suburban yards alike, and its tolerance of disturbed and human-altered landscapes has helped keep it common even as many other North American amphibians have declined.