Dryophytes avivoca

Duellman et al. (2016) restricted Hyla to Eurasia and North Africa and referred the North American and east Asian sister taxon of this group to Dryophytes. This taxonomy was accepted by Amphibian Species of the World and followed here. It is not followed by the Society for the Study of Amphibians And Reptiles (SSAR) with Crother (2017) stating, "acceptance of this taxonomy within the community is not clear at this point."

Faivovich et al. (2005) redelimited this monophyletic taxon to include only North American and Eurasian species. Hua et al. (2009) discussed relationships within the group. Fouquette and Dubois (2014) recognized a suite of subgenera based on genetic and morphological evidence, but pending a more thorough evidentiary review, Crother (2017) hesitates to employ this taxonomy. Two subspecies are recognized by Crother (2017) [in the genus Hylas], H. avivoca avivoca (Western Bird-Voiced Treefrog) and H. a. ogechiensis (Eastern Bird-Voiced Treefrog).

Moderately widespread in southeastern United States; locally abundant; apparently stable range and abundance in most areas; not threatened in most of range.

Southern Illinois and western Kentucky to Gulf Coast, Louisiana to Florida Panhandle, eastern Georgia, and adjacent South Carolina; west of the Mississippi River, occurs disjunctly in central and northern Louisiana, southeastern Oklahoma and adjacent southwestern Arkansas, and central Arkansas (Conant and Collons 1991).

Ashton and Ashton (1988) recorded occurrences in 10 counties through the species' range in western Florida. Moler (1992) did not include this species in his review of the rare and endangered herpetofauna of Florida, suggesting an ample number of occurrences. Dundee and Rossman (1989) mapped about 65 locations in Louisiana, where the species appears to be widespread east of the Mississippi River. Widespread in the Coastal Plain in southern and western Alabama, where Mount (1975) mapped 36 collection sites. Occurs in suitable habitats throughout Mississippi (Ferguson 1961, see also Smith 1966). Redmond and Scott (1996) mapped 14 locations in Tennessee. In Illinois, recently known from 4 counties, with one additional pre-1980 county occurrence (Phillips et al. 1999). During 1992-2000, 7 new county records (3 in Georgia, 2 in Louisiana, 1 each in Tennessee and Florida) were published in Herpetological Review, suggesting that the distribution is fairly well known but still not completely documented.

Swampy habitat protects the species from many threats deriving from habitat alteration, but threats include clearing and draining of baldcypress-tupelo swamps (Phillips et al. 1999).