Knob-handed Shrub Frog

Knob-handed shrub frog Raorchestes tuberohumerus

This is a tiny bush frog found throughout the Western Ghats in Karnataka. The major habitat of this species is short shrubs and herbs on cultivated land, roadsides and forests. It calls generally from a height of less than a couple of feet above the ground, but on a few occasions I saw them calling from overhead. This is also probably the only bush frog I heard even at mid day.

The call can be identified by its pattern (short bursts of distinct clicks) and the sharp, higher-pitched nature of the clicks, which give this frog its other common name- "typewriter frog".

Location: Sirsi, Karnataka
Recorded on a phone using ASR Recorder, edited in WavePad

Were there two frogs calling? It does sound like a typewriter clicking :). Nice recording. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, there were multiple frogs calling. This was recorded in complete darkness as these frogs tend to alter their call patterns if disturbed by light.

Nice to hear this. How do they sound when there is light?

Sabyasachi- When disturbed by torchlight, they reduce the number of clicks in a burst (the usual 2-3 clicks, or even 6-7 clicks, gets reduced to single clicks), and more noticeably the volume of the calls is greatly reduced due to the vocal sac not being fully distended, making it hard to identify the faint clicks. This recording exhibits both the normal loudness and the series of multiple clicks (by the 2nd individual in the background).

super. im sure i heard this many times without having the faintest idea of the source. thanks for sharing some interesting calls from the western ghats
TFS
Roopak

Roopak: An update. There has been a different species that has been described very recently from Kerala, closely related to this one, called Raorchestes leucollatus. ​It is possible that similar calls you may here in that region may be coming from this new species.