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Northern water snake

Nerodia sipedon · Snakes · Reptiles

Northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon): Brownish, tan or gray; back and sides have square blotches alternating and often merging into bands toward the front; large adults can look solid brown or black, especially when dry. Belly white, yellowish or orangish, with dark half-moon marks and often red or orange blotches. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Northern water snake coiled on gravel
Adobe Stock · Standard License (asset 386493319)
Scientific name
Nerodia sipedon
Family
Colubridae
In North America
Native
Range
Southern Ontario and the northeastern United States, from Nebraska and Kansas east to the Atlantic coast and south to North Carolina and southern Missouri.
Biology

How to identify it

Brownish, tan or gray; back and sides have square blotches alternating and often merging into bands toward the front; large adults can look solid brown or black, especially when dry. [1][2]

Belly white, yellowish or orangish, with dark half-moon marks and often red or orange blotches. [1][2]

Juveniles have reddish-brown saddles on a tan, brown or gray ground colour. [1][2]

Scales keeled, anal plate divided, 21-25 scales at midbody; adults 61-140 cm, males smaller than females; mature males have knobbed keels near the vent. [1][2]

Compared with the northern cottonmouth (water moccasin): Commonly mistaken for it; the northern water snake is non-venomous (Animal Diversity Web gives no further field mark). [1][2]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a northern water snake before you act. Compared with the northern cottonmouth (water moccasin): Commonly mistaken for it; the northern water snake is non-venomous (Animal Diversity Web gives no further field mark).[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Creeks, rivers, canals, lakes, ponds, marshes, bogs and swamps; favours sunny spots with debris, logs or rocks at the water's edge. [1][2]

Hibernates in burrows, rock crevices or uplands near water. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Active day and night but mainly by day; basks on overhanging branches, beaver lodges, logs and shallow margins; social at basking sites in spring and fall, otherwise solitary. [1][2]

Eats amphibians, fish (live or dead), crayfish, insects, leeches, small mammals; swallows prey alive and is not a constrictor. [1][2]

Inactive in cold months in the north (activity mainly March-April through October); bites and discharges musk when handled. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Southern Ontario and the northeastern United States, from Nebraska and Kansas east to the Atlantic coast and south to North Carolina and southern Missouri.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web