Snake Identifier

Snake Encyclopedia

Search and identify 1,000+ snakes from around the world — with venomous status, family, range, size, habitat, and how to tell look-alikes apart.

Variegated Snail-eater

Variegated Snail-eater

A brightly banded, snail-eating colubrid of Central American rainforests, named for its variegated red, black, and cream coloration.

Mexican Yellowbelly Brown Snake

Mexican Yellowbelly Brown Snake

A small, secretive brown snake from southern Mexico distinguished by its pale yellowish underside.

Mexican Hognose Snake

Mexican Hognose Snake

A stocky, upturned-snouted snake famous for its dramatic defensive bluff display, including hissing, hood-flattening, and death-feigning.

Godman's Garter Snake

Godman's Garter Snake

A small, high-elevation garter snake restricted to montane streams in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Smooth Earth Snake

Smooth Earth Snake

A small, plain, burrowing colubrid of the eastern and central United States, closely resembling the Rough Earth Snake but with smooth scales.

Cross-marked Sand Snake

Cross-marked Sand Snake

A small, slender southern African sand snake named for the distinctive cross- or arrow-shaped marking on its head and neck.

Western Shovel-Nosed Snake

Western Shovel-Nosed Snake

A small, banded desert specialist with a flattened, shovel-shaped snout adapted for burrowing through loose sand.

Concho Water Snake

Concho Water Snake

A rare, narrow-range Texas water snake tied to rocky, flowing sections of the Concho and Colorado rivers.

Clifford's Snake

Clifford's Snake

A robust, boldly blotched diadem snake found in sandy and rocky desert habitats from North Africa across the Middle East into Central and South Asia.

Western Fox Snake

Western Fox Snake

A stout, tan-and-brown blotched constrictor of the Midwest prairies, sometimes mistaken for a rattlesnake due to defensive tail vibration.

White-Bellied Mangrove Snake

White-Bellied Mangrove Snake

A stocky, mildly aquatic mangrove-dwelling snake specialized in feeding on soft-shelled crabs.

Montane Egg-eater

Montane Egg-eater

A small, harmless African snake specialized entirely for eating bird eggs, found in highland and montane habitats of East and Central Africa.

Gray Rat Snake

Gray Rat Snake

A large, blotched gray-and-brown constrictor that retains its juvenile pattern into adulthood, unlike its solid-black eastern relative.

Banded Sand Snake

Banded Sand Snake

A tiny, brightly banded desert colubrid built for burrowing through loose sand, closely resembling the shovelnose snakes it shares habitat with.

Common Vine Snake

Common Vine Snake

A slender, twig-mimicking African tree snake with exceptional camouflage and keyhole-shaped pupils, possessing venom that, though rear-fanged, can be medically significant.

Brown Snake DeKay's

Brown Snake DeKay's

A small, common brownish colubrid found in gardens, parks, and woodlands across eastern North America.

Cape File Snake

Cape File Snake

A distinctive African colubrid with unusually rough, file-like body scales and a specialized diet that includes other snakes, notably venomous species.

Black Kingsnake

Black Kingsnake

A largely uniform glossy black kingsnake found in the central and southeastern United States, sometimes showing faint traces of pattern.

West Coast Garter Snake

West Coast Garter Snake

A common streamside garter snake of the Pacific coast, often seen basking near rivers and creeks in California and Oregon.

Yellow-speckled Wolf Snake

Yellow-speckled Wolf Snake

A nocturnal Asian wolf snake with fine yellow speckling on a dark body, preying chiefly on lizards.

Satiny Parrot Snake

Satiny Parrot Snake

A slender, iridescent green arboreal snake of Central American rainforests with a glossy, satin-like sheen.

Mexican Alpine Blotched Garter Snake

Mexican Alpine Blotched Garter Snake

A high-altitude garter snake from central Mexico's volcanic peaks, marked by a ladder-like blotched pattern rather than clean stripes.

Red-tailed Racer

Red-tailed Racer

A slender, bright green arboreal snake from Southeast Asian rainforests, distinguished by the reddish-brown coloration of its tail contrasting with its emerald green body.

Buff Striped Keelback

Buff Striped Keelback

A slender, boldly striped freshwater colubrid common around paddies and ponds across South Asia.

Pueblan Milk Snake

Pueblan Milk Snake

A vividly banded milk snake native to south-central Mexico, known for its bold tricolor pattern and harmless nature.

San Diego Gopher Snake

San Diego Gopher Snake

A large southern California gopher snake subspecies frequently seen in coastal sage scrub and chaparral habitats.

Glossy Crayfish Snake

Glossy Crayfish Snake

A glossy, dark-bodied wetland snake of the southeastern coastal plain that specializes in eating crayfish.

Keeled Rat Snake

Keeled Rat Snake

A very large, fast-moving rat snake from Southeast Asian rainforests, distinguished by strongly keeled dorsal scales that give it a rough texture.

Tiger Keelback

Tiger Keelback

A rear-fanged East Asian colubrid known for sequestering toad toxins in nuchal glands and for its medically significant venom.

Schokari Sand Racer

Schokari Sand Racer

A slender, fast-moving desert racer common across North Africa and the Middle East, notable for its speed and daytime hunting habits.

Speckle-bellied Keelback

Speckle-bellied Keelback

A small keelback of Southeast Asia named for the fine dark speckling on its underside.

Black-striped Snake

Black-striped Snake

A small, secretive tan snake with dark longitudinal stripes, found in brushy lowlands of southern Texas and Mexico.

Mississippi Green Water Snake

Mississippi Green Water Snake

A stout, greenish water snake of Gulf Coast swamps and bayous, closely related to the Florida green water snake.

Duberria Lutrix

Duberria Lutrix

A small, harmless African colubrid known scientifically as Duberria lutrix, specialized in eating slugs and snails.

Green Rat Snake

Green Rat Snake

A bright green, arboreal colubrid of Southeast Asian rainforests, closely related to the red-tailed racer and well camouflaged in the forest canopy.

Mexican Blackbelly Garter Snake

Mexican Blackbelly Garter Snake

A semi-aquatic garter snake from the Mexican Plateau notable for its dark, often solid black underside.

Dwarf Snake

Dwarf Snake

A small, plain-colored colubrid found across the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, notable for its secretive habits and diminutive size.

Eastern Worm Snake

Eastern Worm Snake

A tiny, glossy, worm-like burrowing snake with a pink belly, rarely seen above ground.

False Fer-de-lance

False Fer-de-lance

A harmless colubrid widely known for mimicking dangerous fer-de-lance pit vipers through dramatic head-flattening displays.

Rough Earth Snake

Rough Earth Snake

A tiny, plain-colored, fossorial colubrid common in leaf litter and gardens across the southeastern United States.

Water Snake

Water Snake

A heavy-bodied, aquatic colubrid frequently mistaken for venomous cottonmouths.

Indian Smooth Snake

Indian Smooth Snake

A small, secretive, non-venomous colubrid found across drier parts of India, rarely encountered due to its fossorial habits.

Pale Milk Snake

Pale Milk Snake

A pale, muted milk snake subspecies from the central Great Plains, with washed-out banding compared to more vividly colored relatives.

Travancore Wolf Snake

Travancore Wolf Snake

A small, secretive wolf snake endemic to the Western Ghats, named for the enlarged fang-like front teeth typical of its genus.

Northern Water Snake

Northern Water Snake

A heavy-bodied, aquatic colubrid often mistaken for a venomous cottonmouth, common around lakes, ponds, and rivers.

Liana Snake

Liana Snake

A vividly patterned, slender arboreal snake of Amazonian and Central American forests, closely related to the red vine snake.

Copperbelly Water Snake

Copperbelly Water Snake

A regionally threatened subspecies of the Redbelly Water Snake, named for its vivid orange-red underside, restricted to isolated wetlands of the American Midwest.

Ladder Snake

Ladder Snake

A large, robust Iberian colubrid named for the ladder-like pattern seen in juveniles, which fades into two dark dorsal stripes in adults.