They are relatively small compared to other North American frog species, typically attaining no more than 1.5 to 2 in (3.8 to 5.1 cm) in length.

[4] This difference in calling can be heard, but it is best quantified by counting the number of pulses per second in their whistled trills.

Even though there is potential for overlap, because of the temperature dependence of the pulse frequency the two species are easily distinguished where they occur together.

[6] Both of these similar species have bright-yellow patches on their hind legs, which distinguishes them from other treefrogs, such as the bird-voiced tree frog.

During metamorphosis, the new froglets will almost always turn green for a day or two before changing to the more common gray.

Gray treefrogs inhabit a wide geographic range, and can be found in most of the eastern half of the United States and as far west as central Texas and Oklahoma.

They also range into Canada in the provinces of Quebec,[10] Ontario, and Manitoba, with an isolated population in New Brunswick.

The gray treefrog is capable of surviving freezing of its internal body fluids to temperatures as low as −8 °C (18 °F).

[citation needed] Male gray treefrogs rarely have large choruses, as they are mostly solitary animals, but might vocalize competitively at the height of breeding periods.

Insect larvae, mites, spiders, plant lice, harvestmen, and snails also contribute towards the diet of the gray treefrog.

Gray tree frogs are less prone to overheating and desiccation than other amphibians and rely on their superb camouflage to hide them from predators.

The lowest intensity of a neighbor's call that a male frog is tolerant of is known as the aggressive threshold.

Selective attention is the phenomenon observed in many chorusing male frog species to change the timing of their calls to reduce overlap based on their loudest one or two neighboring male competitors, while ignoring the timing of other calls farther away.

Even though advertisement calls are primarily used to attract females, they still play a role in male-male interactions.

However, increasing the distance between males producing overlapping calls may reduce the cost that usually causes females to not choose those potential mates.

This means that H. versicolor males are not as forced to make specific timed-call responses and initiations to increase mate attractiveness compared to other chorus anurans and insects.

They do this in order to increase the likelihood that their advertisement call is received by a female over the other noise and vocalizations that could obscure it.

[18] D. versicolor males are known to follow a similar pattern that is seen in other species termed graded aggressive calling.

The energetic cost of producing vocalizations increases if there is any shift from a male's individual natural frequency.

[17] Dryophytes versicolor is known to be largely intersterile with D. chrysoscelis but there may be a limited amount of interfertility in sympatry.

In addition, to enforce speciation there may be unknown mechanisms of reinforcement deployed between these species and further research may be fruitful.

In general, D. versicolor males initiate physical attacks during intense vocal conflict between the two species more often than D. chrysoscelis.

In previous studies, D. versicolor mate attractiveness decreases when there is call overlap with D. chrysoscelis.