‹ Compare two snakes
Broad-banded Copperhead vs Northern Watersnake
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(c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY)
Broad-banded Copperhead
Agkistrodon laticinctus
VenomousMartyn Drabik-Hamshare, no rights reserved
Northern Watersnake
Nerodia sipedon
Non-venomousThe quick way to tell
Follow the bands toward the tail. The Broad-banded Copperhead's wide bands run the whole body. The Northern Watersnake's bands only cover the front third, then break into staggered blotches. They overlap only at the edge of their ranges in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Pattern ★ This settles it
Wide dark crossbands that stay about the same width all the way across the back.
Crossbands up front breaking into blotches toward the tail; reddish half-moons on the belly.
Head
Coppery, unmarked, triangular head clearly wider than the neck.
Narrow head barely wider than the neck; flattens when threatened.
Eyes
Vertical slit pupil; heat-sensing pit between eye and nostril.
Round pupil, eyes set high on the head; no heat-sensing pit.
Pits
A deep heat-sensing pit on each side of the face, between the eye and the nostril.
None. There is no pit between the eye and the nostril.
Tail
Plain; young have a bright yellow tail tip.
Tapers evenly; no rattle.
What it does
Freezes and relies on camouflage; may vibrate its tail.
Basks on docks and banks; drops into water, bites hard if grabbed.
Where it lives
South-central US: central and west Texas, central Oklahoma and south-central Kansas, south into northern Mexico.
Eastern and central US from Maine and Ontario south to the Carolinas and the Gulf states (just into the Florida panhandle), west to Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma; introduced in California.