Snake Identifier

Snake Encyclopedia

Search and identify 1,000+ snakes from around the world — with family, range, size, habitat, and how to tell similar species apart.

Spotted Leaf-Nosed Snake

Spotted Leaf-Nosed Snake

A small nocturnal desert snake named for its enlarged, leaf-shaped rostral scale used to dig for buried lizard eggs.

Mexican Black-Headed Snake

Mexican Black-Headed Snake

A tiny, secretive snake with a glossy tan body and a distinct black cap over the head and neck.

Afro-Asian Sand Snake

Afro-Asian Sand Snake

A slim, fast-moving diurnal sand snake distributed across arid regions of Africa and Asia.

Southern Shovel-Nosed Snake

Southern Shovel-Nosed Snake

A small burrowing elapid from southern and western Australia with a distinctive banded pattern and a shovel-shaped snout for digging through sand.

Small-Headed Sea Snake

Small-Headed Sea Snake

A slender sea snake with a strikingly tiny head and narrow forebody widening toward the rear, found in shallow coastal waters across the Indo-Pacific.

Hook-Nosed Sea Snake

Hook-Nosed Sea Snake

A sea snake found in murky coastal and estuarine waters across the Indo-Pacific, notable for its distinctive hooked snout.

Northern Cat-eyed Snake

Northern Cat-eyed Snake

A nocturnal 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.

Japanese Four-lined Rat Snake

Japanese Four-lined Rat Snake

A common Japanese rat snake marked with four dark longitudinal stripes running the length of its body, frequently seen in fields and gardens.

Big Bend Patch-Nosed Snake

Big Bend Patch-Nosed Snake

A desert colubrid with an enlarged, upturned rostral scale used for digging, marked by a bold pale vertebral stripe.

Trans-Pecos Black-Headed Snake

Trans-Pecos Black-Headed Snake

One of the largest black-headed snakes, a slender tan species with a bold black hood found in West Texas canyon country.

Ijima's Turtle-Headed Sea Snake

Ijima's Turtle-Headed Sea Snake

An egg-eating sea snake from the Ryukyu Islands with a blunt, turtle-like head.

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.

Western Rattlesnake

Western Rattlesnake

A widespread pit viper of the western United States and Canada, recognized by its dark blotches and rattling tail.

Greater Black Whipsnake

Greater Black Whipsnake

A large, fast-moving, alert diurnal elapid of northern Australia and New Guinea, known for its speed and keen eyesight.

Prairie Kingsnake

Prairie Kingsnake

A secretive, moderately patterned kingsnake of grasslands and open woods, often mistaken for a young rat snake or gopher snake.

Dekay's Brownsnake

Dekay's Brownsnake

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

Road Guarder

Road Guarder

A striped ground snake often seen basking on roads and open paths in dry tropical habitats.

Hooded Malpolon

Hooded Malpolon

A large, fast snake of the western Mediterranean known for its hood-like display, closely related to the Eastern Montpellier snake.

Common Bronzeback

Common Bronzeback

A slender, fast-moving, day-active tree snake with a bronze-toned back, common across gardens and forest edges of the Indian subcontinent.

Black Kingsnake

Black Kingsnake

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

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.

Chihuahuan Nightsnake

Chihuahuan Nightsnake

A slender, nocturnal desert snake with catlike vertical pupils and a pair of dark neck blotches resembling a collar.

Texas Threadsnake

Texas Threadsnake

A small, glossy, burrowing thread snake native to Texas and adjacent Mexico, spending nearly its entire life underground feeding on ant and termite brood.