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Plainbelly water snake

Nerodia erythrogaster · Snakes · Reptiles

Plainbelly water snake (Nerodia erythrogaster): Large, typically solid-coloured water snake: dorsum black, grey, olive-grey, brown or pink, sometimes with faint crossbars. Near-uniform colour on back, belly and underside of tail. 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.

Scientific name
Nerodia erythrogaster
Family
Colubridae
In North America
Native
Range
Southern Delaware and southeastern Maryland to northern Florida, west through Georgia and Alabama to southeastern New Mexico and western Texas, north to northeastern Kansas, western Missouri, central Illinois and southern Indiana; disjunct populations in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois.
Biology

How to identify it

Large, typically solid-coloured water snake: dorsum black, grey, olive-grey, brown or pink, sometimes with faint crossbars. [1][2][3]

Near-uniform colour on back, belly and underside of tail. [1][2][3]

N. e. erythrogaster: uniform brown back, orange to pink belly; N. e. flavigaster: grey to olive-grey back, orange-yellow to pale yellow or white belly. [1][2][3]

Compared with the mississippi green watersnake: Green watersnake has small subocular scales between eye and lip scales and a dark belly with yellow half-moons; plain-bellied has a near-uniform belly. [1][2][3]

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 plainbelly water snake before you act. Compared with the mississippi green watersnake: Green watersnake has small subocular scales between eye and lip scales and a dark belly with yellow half-moons; plain-bellied has a near-uniform belly.[1][2][3]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Wide range of wetlands with permanent or semipermanent water: swamps, marshes, pond and lake edges, ditches and slow streams; basks in water-edge vegetation. [1][2][3]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Basks by day, forages in evening and at night (NatureServe); Animal Diversity Web calls it diurnal. [1][2][3]

Active March to October in the north, all year in the south except in cold weather; wanders far from water in warm wet weather. [1][2][3]

Hibernates underground, in rock piles and crayfish burrows. [1][2][3]

Eats mainly fish and frogs; also tadpoles, salamanders and crayfish. [1][2][3]

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.

Conservation and protection

  • THREATENED — Copperbelly water snake (Nerodia erythrogaster neglecta), Indiana north of 40 degrees north latitude, Michigan, Ohio: listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1997-01-29. · ECOS species profile: Copperbelly water snake

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 Delaware and southeastern Maryland to northern Florida, west through Georgia and Alabama to southeastern New Mexico and western Texas, north to northeastern Kansas, western Missouri, central Illinois and southern Indiana; disjunct populations in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois.

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 · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology

  3. Missouri Department of Conservation · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Missouri Department of Conservation