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.

Short-Tailed Kingsnake

Short-Tailed Kingsnake

A small, secretive Florida endemic with a slender body and reduced tail, rarely seen due to its burrowing habits.

Mole Kingsnake

Mole Kingsnake

A secretive, burrowing kingsnake subspecies with a faded, blotched pattern that grows more obscure with age.

Narrow-headed Garter Snake

Narrow-headed Garter Snake

A highly aquatic, fish-eating garter snake of clear mountain streams, notable for its unusually narrow head.

Lined Snake

Lined Snake

A small, garter snake-like colubrid of the central United States, identified by a double row of dark half-moon belly markings.

Louisiana Pine Snake

Louisiana Pine Snake

One of North America's rarest snakes, a large burrowing constrictor tied closely to pocket gopher burrows in longleaf pine forests.

Highland Garter Snake

Highland Garter Snake

A cold-tolerant garter snake found at high elevations in central Mexico's mountain grasslands and pine forests.

Common Glossy Racer

Common Glossy Racer

A widespread, smooth-scaled racer with a glossy sheen, found across a broad swath of Neotropical habitats.

Afro-Asian Sand Snake

Afro-Asian Sand Snake

A slim, fast-moving diurnal sand snake distributed across arid regions of Africa and Asia, mildly venomous but not medically significant to humans.

Dekay's Brownsnake

Dekay's Brownsnake

A tiny, secretive brown snake commonly found in gardens and vacant lots across much of eastern North America.

Elegant Bronzeback

Elegant Bronzeback

A vividly colored, slender tree snake of Southeast Asian rainforests, known for its metallic bronze back and striking blue-and-black flanks.

Eastern Indigo Snake

Eastern Indigo Snake

The longest native snake in North America, a glossy blue-black giant known for its docile nature and association with gopher tortoise burrows.

Cape Wolf Snake

Cape Wolf Snake

A small, nocturnal African colubrid named for its enlarged, fang-like front teeth used to grip smooth-scaled reptile prey such as lizards and other snakes.

Cat-Eyed Water Snake

Cat-Eyed Water Snake

A small, secretive mangrove snake from Asia with distinctive vertical pupils, specialized in feeding on crabs.

Variable Sand Snake

Variable Sand Snake

A small burrowing desert snake closely related to the banded sand snake, showing variable banding intensity across its Sonoran Desert range.

Rim Rock Crowned Snake

Rim Rock Crowned Snake

A rare, tiny Florida endemic snake with a dark crown-like head cap, restricted to limestone rockland habitat.

Semiornate Snake

Semiornate Snake

A large, patterned African bush snake with cross-barring on the neck, harmless to humans and one of the bigger species in its genus.

Red Whip Snake

Red Whip Snake

A slender, reddish-toned whip snake found in arid regions of the Middle East, recognized by its fast movement and warm coloration.

Eastern Kingsnake

Eastern Kingsnake

A glossy black snake marked with narrow chain-like yellow or white bands, famed for preying on venomous snakes.

Big Bend Black-Headed Snake

Big Bend Black-Headed Snake

A small, reddish-brown desert snake with a dark head cap, found in rocky canyons of the Big Bend region.

California Lyresnake

California Lyresnake

A slender, rock-dwelling nocturnal snake with cat-like vertical pupils and a lyre-shaped head marking.

Mexican Black Kingsnake

Mexican Black Kingsnake

A striking, almost entirely jet-black kingsnake from northwestern Mexico, notable for its uniform glossy appearance.

Rat Snake

Rat Snake

A large, fast-moving, non-venomous snake widespread across South and Southeast Asia, valued for controlling rodent populations.

Long-Nosed Snake

Long-Nosed Snake

A boldly patterned desert snake with black, cream, and red saddles and a distinctively pointed, upturned nose.

Patagonian Racer

Patagonian Racer

A hardy, cold-tolerant colubrid found in the arid steppes of Patagonia, unusually far south for a rear-fanged racer.

Smooth Earthsnake

Smooth Earthsnake

A small, plain-colored, smooth-scaled snake found under forest debris across a broad swath of the eastern U.S.

Transcaucasian Ratsnake

Transcaucasian Ratsnake

A small, secretive ratsnake of the Caucasus and surrounding mountains, closely related to the Aesculapian snake but with a much smaller range and size.

Sharp-Tailed Snake

Sharp-Tailed Snake

A small, secretive Pacific coast colubrid named for the sharp, spine-like tip of its tail, and a specialized predator of slugs.

Grass Snake

Grass Snake

A common, harmless European snake closely tied to wetlands and known for its distinctive yellow neck collar and bluffing defensive display.

Scarlet Kingsnake

Scarlet Kingsnake

A small, vividly banded red, black, and yellow kingsnake of the southeastern US that mimics the venomous coral snake.

Leopard Water Snake

Leopard Water Snake

A boldly spotted aquatic snake of southern South American wetlands, named for the leopard-like blotches covering its body.

Checkered Garter Snake

Checkered Garter Snake

A striped garter snake with a bold checkerboard pattern of dark blotches between the stripes, found across the arid Southwest.

Namib Sand Snake

Namib Sand Snake

A desert-adapted sand snake endemic to the Namib region, built for speed across open sand and gravel plains.

Durango Mountain Kingsnake

Durango Mountain Kingsnake

A tricolor mountain kingsnake from the pine-oak highlands of Durango, Mexico, part of the Mexican mountain kingsnake group.

Western Yellow-bellied Sand Snake

Western Yellow-bellied Sand Snake

A slender, arid-adapted sand snake of southwestern Africa distinguished by its bright yellow underside and swift diurnal foraging.

Cliff Racer

Cliff Racer

A fast, slender racer adapted to rocky and mountainous terrain across the Middle East and Central Asia.

Northern Cat-eyed Snake

Northern Cat-eyed Snake

A nocturnal, mildly venomous colubrid named for its vertical, cat-like pupils.

Mexican Wandering Garter Snake

Mexican Wandering Garter Snake

A wide-ranging highland garter snake of western Mexico, adaptable to a variety of montane stream and forest habitats.

Glossy-bellied Racer

Glossy-bellied Racer

A slender, fast-moving racer from arid South Asian and Middle Eastern habitats with a distinctively glossy, spotted underside.

Aesculapian Snake

Aesculapian Snake

A large, agile European colubrid historically linked to the symbol of medicine, favoring warm woodlands and old buildings.

Schott's Whipsnake

Schott's Whipsnake

A slender, fast-moving whipsnake of South Texas brushlands, patterned with pale crossbands on a darker ground color.

Cape House Snake

Cape House Snake

A common, non-venomous constrictor found throughout southern Africa, frequently encountered near human settlements where it hunts rodents.

Yellow-spotted Keelback

A small stream-associated colubrid marked with yellow spotting along a dark body, found across South and Southeast Asian hill forests.

Sumichrast's Garter Snake

A Mexican highland garter snake named for the naturalist Francois Sumichrast, found near streams and wet meadows.

Scarce Wolf Snake

A rarely encountered, small banded wolf snake known from limited localities in the Himalayan foothill region.

Southern Brown Egg-eater

A harmless, plain brown egg-specialist snake widespread in southern Africa, capable of swallowing bird eggs whole despite its small head.

Scorpion-eating Snake

A tiny, secretive burrowing snake with a dark head cap, specialized in preying on scorpions and centipedes.

Tamaulipan Montane Garter Snake

A rare, range-restricted garter snake known only from a small mountainous area of Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Sonoran Shovel-Nosed Snake

A brightly banded desert snake closely resembling the Western Shovel-Nosed Snake, restricted to rocky Sonoran Desert foothills.