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Sidewinder

Crotalus cerastes · Snakes · Reptiles

Sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes): Raised scales over the eyes look like horns (NDOW; NPS Death Valley). Heavy-bodied pit viper, tan to lighter cream with dark dorsal blotches; large triangular head (NDOW; NPS Death Valley). 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
Crotalus cerastes
Family
Viperidae
In North America
Native
Range
Southeastern California, southern Nevada and extreme southwestern Utah south through southwestern Arizona into northeastern Baja California and northwestern Sonora; from below sea level to about 1,830 m (NatureServe).
Biology

How to identify it

Raised scales over the eyes look like horns (NDOW; NPS Death Valley). [1][2][3][4]

Heavy-bodied pit viper, tan to lighter cream with dark dorsal blotches; large triangular head (NDOW; NPS Death Valley). [1][2][3][4]

Usually 1.5 ft or less, up to about 3 ft; 17-33 in (NPS Death Valley; NDOW). [1][2][3][4]

Moves by throwing the body sideways in an S-shaped curve; tracks in sand are J-shaped and may end in a small depression where it has buried itself (NPS Death Valley). [1][2][3][4]

Field knowledge

Where it lives

Open desert with fine windblown sand, sandy washes, or sparsely vegetated dunes with creosotebush or mesquite; sometimes rocky or gravelly sites (NatureServe). [1][2][3][4]

Overwinters in rodent or tortoise burrows (NatureServe). [1][2][3][4]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Crepuscular, and nocturnal in warm periods; by day it hides in rodent burrows or shifts side to side until nearly buried in sand, then waits for prey (NPS Death Valley). [1][2][3][4]

Active mainly February-November in extreme southern California; in the eastern Mojave Desert activity starts March or April and ends October or November, peaking May-June and late September-October (NatureServe). [1][2][3][4]

Eats mainly lizards, pocket mice, kangaroo rats and other small mammals; occasionally small birds and snakes (NatureServe). [1][2][3][4]

Seasonal moves of up to several hundred metres between hibernation burrows and sandy summer habitat were recorded in the eastern Mojave (NatureServe). [1][2][3][4]

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

Southeastern California, southern Nevada and extreme southwestern Utah south through southwestern Arizona into northeastern Baja California and northwestern Sonora; from below sea level to about 1,830 m (NatureServe).

Biology

Sources

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

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. BIOLOGICALSidewinder

    Nevada Department of Wildlife · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Nevada Department of Wildlife

  3. National Park Service · reviewed 2026-09-30

    National Park Service

  4. BIOLOGICALRattlesnake

    California Department of Fish and Wildlife · reviewed 2026-09-30

    California Department of Fish and Wildlife