[4] It is found in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa and possibly Eswatini.

Its natural habitats are temperate forest, subtropical or tropical dry forest, dry savanna, moist savanna, temperate shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, temperate grassland, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, swamps, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, water storage areas, and ponds.

The species is threatened in some parts of its range by habitat loss, but in general it is not very rare, and in some places common.

[1] Both male and female Afrixalus fornasinii adults prey on grey foam-nest tree frog eggs and tadpoles.

The zoologist Hugh Cott's drawings and description of the frog's "coincident disruptive coloration" showed that its pattern, forming bold stripes on the legs and body, lined up (coincided) exactly when the legs were tightly folded into the body at rest, effectively disrupting its outline.