Glossy Swampsnake vs. Common Watersnake

They meet from eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas to Louisiana and Mississippi. A: A small, narrow head barely wider than the neck; yellow lips, each lip scale edged dark in the Glossy Swampsnake; a broad head clearly wider than the neck, with dark bars on the lips in the Common Watersnake. B: Yellow with two neat rows of black half-moons down the middle in the Glossy Swampsnake; pale with dark or reddish half-moons, scattered or in a double row of crescents across each belly scale in the Common Watersnake. C: Plain glossy olive-brown, faint stripes only in the Glossy Swampsnake; crossbands near the head breaking into alternating blotches toward the tail in the Common Watersnake. Old dark Common Watersnakes can look plain: check the head and the belly.

Photographs via iNaturalist under Creative Commons licences; the photographers are credited on the sheet.

More comparisons

• Glossy Swampsnake vs. Plain-bellied Watersnake
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• Glossy Swampsnake vs. Banded Watersnake
• Glossy Swampsnake vs. Mississippi Green Watersnake
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• Common Watersnake vs. Plain-bellied Watersnake
• Kirtland's Snake vs. Common Watersnake
• Queensnake vs. Common Watersnake
• Northern Cottonmouth vs. Common Watersnake
• Mississippi Green Watersnake vs. Common Watersnake
• Graham's Crawfish Snake vs. Common Watersnake
• Banded Watersnake vs. Common Watersnake
• Broad-banded Copperhead vs. Common Watersnake
• Brown Watersnake vs. Common Watersnake

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