‹ Compare two snakes
Eastern Copperhead vs Red Cornsnake
Tap a part to see it on both. Tap it again to turn it off.
(c) Court Harding, some rights reserved (CC BY)
Eastern Copperhead
Agkistrodon contortrix
VenomousDia D, no rights reserved
Red Cornsnake
Pantherophis guttatus
Non-venomousThe quick way to tell
Look at the top of the head. The cornsnake has a spear-shaped mark. The copperhead's head is plain copper with no markings.
Head ★ This settles it
Plain coppery triangular head with no stripes or blotches, clearly wider than the neck.
Narrow head with a spear-point marking running forward between the eyes.
Pattern
Dark hourglass bands - wide at the sides, pinched to a narrow waist over the spine.
Bold red-orange saddles edged in black on orange to gray; black-and-white checkerboard belly.
Eyes
Vertical slit pupil; heat-sensing pit between eye and nostril.
Round pupil, orange-brown iris; 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, often striped underneath; no rattle.
What it does
Freezes rather than fleeing - which is why people step on them.
Calm and slow to bite; freezes or slips into cover.
Where it lives
Eastern US from Massachusetts and New York south to the Florida panhandle, west to Iowa, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma and eastern Texas.
Southeast: New Jersey south through Florida, west to Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky.