‹ Compare two snakes
Eastern Copperhead vs DeKay's Brownsnake
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(c) Court Harding, some rights reserved (CC BY)
Eastern Copperhead
Agkistrodon contortrix
Venomous(c) Michael J. Papay, some rights reserved (CC BY)
DeKay's Brownsnake
Storeria dekayi
Non-venomousThe quick way to tell
Look at the back pattern. DeKay's Brownsnake has a pale stripe down the back edged by two rows of tiny dark dots. The Eastern Copperhead has bold hourglass bands that are wide on the sides and pinched over the spine.
Pattern ★ This settles it
Dark hourglass bands - wide at the sides, pinched to a narrow waist over the spine.
Pale stripe down a brown back between two rows of small dark spots.
Head
Plain coppery triangular head with no stripes or blotches, clearly wider than the neck.
Small head, often with a dark mark behind the jaw.
Eyes
Vertical slit pupil; heat-sensing pit between eye and nostril.
Round pupil, small dark eye; 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.
Short; no rattle.
What it does
Freezes rather than fleeing - which is why people step on them.
Slow and inoffensive; hides under boards and bricks.
Where it lives
Eastern US from Massachusetts and New York south to the Florida panhandle, west to Iowa, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma and eastern Texas.
Eastern and central US: southern Maine and southern Canada south through Florida, west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas.