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.

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.

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.

Northern Small-Eyed Snake

Northern Small-Eyed Snake

A small, secretive nocturnal elapid of tropical northern Australia with a pale head and glossy dark body.

San Diego Gopher Snake

San Diego Gopher Snake

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

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.

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.

Aesculapian False Coral Snake

Aesculapian False Coral Snake

A South American colubrid with bold red, black, and white banding resembling that of true coral snakes.

Green Bush Rat Snake

Green Bush Rat Snake

A slender, bright green arboreal snake found in montane forests of Southeast Asia and southern China, well camouflaged among foliage.

Spine-Bellied Sea Snake

Spine-Bellied Sea Snake

A stout, small-headed sea snake with distinctly keeled belly scales, common in shallow tropical and subtropical waters and frequently caught as bycatch by trawlers.

Baja California Rat Snake

Baja California Rat Snake

A smooth, glossy reddish-brown rat snake endemic to rocky canyons of the Baja California peninsula.

South American Coral Snake

South American Coral Snake

A strikingly banded elapid of South American forests and wetlands, marked with the classic red-black-yellow triad pattern shared by many New World coral snakes.

Plains Black-Headed Snake

Plains Black-Headed Snake

A small, secretive prairie snake with a plain tan body capped by a distinct black head and neck collar.

Great Basin Gopher Snake

Great Basin Gopher Snake

A high-desert gopher snake subspecies adapted to the cold winters and arid summers of the Great Basin, valued as an effective rodent predator.

New Mexico Milk Snake

New Mexico Milk Snake

A tricolor milk snake subspecies of the arid Southwest, with vivid red, black, and white banding across a slender body.

Turtle-Headed Sea Snake

Turtle-Headed Sea Snake

A small reef sea snake specialized for feeding exclusively on fish eggs.

Persian Gulf Sea Snake

Persian Gulf Sea Snake

A moderately sized, banded sea snake commonly found in the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf and surrounding Arabian Sea coastlines.

Guyana Blackback Coral Snake

Guyana Blackback Coral Snake

A small coral snake of northern South America and southern Central America, patterned in tricolor rings with narrow pale bands.

Cloud Forest Coral Snake

A montane coral snake found in the cloud forests of Oaxaca, marked by bold tricolor rings adapted to cool, wet, high-elevation habitats.

Short-headed Garter Snake

Short-headed Garter Snake

A small, range-restricted garter snake found only in a narrow area of Pennsylvania and New York, specialized for hunting earthworms.

Indian Egg-eating Snake

Indian Egg-eating Snake

A rare, highly specialized colubrid from India adapted almost exclusively to eating bird eggs.

Yaqui Black-Headed Snake

Yaqui Black-Headed Snake

A small, secretive snake of southeastern Arizona's mountain canyons, with a tan body and dark head cap.

Stripe-bellied Sand Snake

Stripe-bellied Sand Snake

A fast, alert diurnal sand snake widespread across savanna Africa, distinguished by dark stripes running along its yellowish underside.

Long-Nosed Worm Snake

Long-Nosed Worm Snake

A small, worm-like blind snake found in the leaf litter and soil of Trinidad and adjacent parts of northern South America.