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.

Black Swamp Snake

Black Swamp Snake

A small, glossy black semi-aquatic snake with a bright red-orange belly, found in southeastern wetlands.

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.

Red-Bellied Snake

Red-Bellied Snake

A tiny woodland colubrid best known for its bright red or orange belly, common across eastern North America.

Eastern Rat Snake

A large, glossy black constrictor common across the eastern U.S., often seen climbing trees or barn rafters in search of rodents and birds.

Spotted Whip Snake

Spotted Whip Snake

A fast, alert colubrid with a row of dark spots or blotches along its back, common in arid and semi-arid habitats across Central and Southwest Asia.

Black-banded Cat-eyed Snake

Black-banded Cat-eyed Snake

A widespread nocturnal colubrid of the Americas with large cat-like eyes and a banded or blotched pattern, common near wetlands.

Aurora House Snake

Aurora House Snake

A small southern African snake named for the striking orange-red dorsal stripe reminiscent of an aurora glow.

De Vis' Banded Snake

De Vis' Banded Snake

A small, secretive elapid of inland eastern Australia's floodplains, closely related to the Ornamental Snake.

Plains Garter Snake

Plains Garter Snake

A grassland garter snake of the central Plains, typically showing a bright orange or yellow dorsal stripe on a dark body.

Redbelly Water Snake

Redbelly Water Snake

A heavy-bodied water snake with a plain dark back and a bright reddish-orange belly, common along ponds and swamps of the American South.

Twin-barred Tree Snake

Twin-barred Tree Snake

A small relative of the flying snakes, marked with paired dark bars along a reddish or orange body, native to Southeast Asian forests.

Trans-Pecos Rat Snake

Trans-Pecos Rat Snake

A slender desert rat snake with a distinctive H-shaped or blotched pattern, found in rocky canyons and limestone hills of the Chihuahuan Desert.

Black-headed Cat Snake

Black-headed Cat Snake

A slender, reddish-brown cat snake distinguished by its solid black or dark head, found in lowland forests of Southeast Asia.

Round Island Boa

A now likely-extinct burrowing boa once endemic to Round Island near Mauritius, notable for its unique jaw structure among snakes.

Broad-banded Garter Snake

A striped garter snake variant found near streams and rivers in Texas, notable for its wide dorsal stripe.

Northwestern Garter Snake

Northwestern Garter Snake

A small, colorful, and highly variable garter snake common in gardens and forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Plain-bellied Water Snake

Plain-bellied Water Snake

A stout water snake with a plain, unpatterned belly ranging from yellow to orange, and a mostly uniform dorsal color as an adult.

MacClelland's Coral Snake

MacClelland's Coral Snake

A small, brightly patterned coral snake of Asian montane forests, recognized by its orange-brown body with black crossbands and a black-and-orange head pattern.

Variegated Wolf Snake

Variegated Wolf Snake

A larger Southeast Asian wolf snake with variable banding that changes with age, resembling kraits when young.

Speckled Racer

Speckled Racer

A fast, alert colubrid with a striking pattern of pale speckles or crossbars on a dark, glossy body.

Red-necked Keelback

Red-necked Keelback

An Asian colubrid notable for the bright red-orange patch on its neck.

Black Swampsnake

Black Swampsnake

A small, glossy black wetland snake with a bright red-orange belly, found in dense marsh vegetation of the southeastern coastal plain.

Prairie Kingsnake

Prairie Kingsnake

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

Eastern Kingsnake

Eastern Kingsnake

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