Mighty morphing tree lizards

show/hide words to know

Tree lizards (Urosaurus ornatus) are among the most common lizards in the southwestern United States. You can often find them warming themselves in a sunny spot on a tree, fence, or wall, waiting for an insect snack to come crawling or flying by. Males have bright blue bellies and colored dewlaps. Females have orange dewlaps, but no blue belly patches. Look on your backyard fence for tree lizards in the summer.

Lizards - Blue Morph
Lizard - Green Morph
Tree lizards come in different color types (morphs). On the left is a blue morph and on the right is a green morph. Images by Brad and Lynn Weinert.
Tree lizard dulap colors
Tree lizard pattern
A close look at the underside of a tree lizard that is showing off come bright orange and blue color (left) and its great camouflage pattern that makes it hard for its predators to see (right). Images by Tom McDonald.
Tree Lizard on a tree
Tree lizard camouflage in action. Two places you are likely to see these lizards, a rock (left) and their favorite hang out, a tree (right). Images by Brad and Lynn Weinert (left) and Tom McDonald (right).

About the photographers: Brad and Lynn Weinert are nature photographers. You can see more of their work at Brad and Lynn's Field Photos (herpindiego.com). Tom McDonald is a Docent Instructor at Tohono Chul Park(link is external). These photographs are copyrighted and used with their permission.

Gold box image of ornate tree lizard via Wikimedia Commons by Leyo.

View Citation

Urosaurus ornatus

Ornate Tree Lizard (Urosaurus ornatus).

Be Part of
Ask A Biologist

By volunteering, or simply sending us feedback on the site. Scientists, teachers, writers, illustrators, and translators are all important to the program. If you are interested in helping with the website we have a Volunteers page to get the process started.

Donate icon  Contribute

Share this page:

 

Share to Google Classroom