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Yellow-backed spiny lizard

Sceloporus uniformis · Lizards · Reptiles

Yellow-backed spiny lizard (Sceloporus uniformis): Large, robust spiny lizard: adults to about 5.5 in (14 cm) snout-to-vent, tail slightly longer than the body. Brown or tan with yellow and black dorsal stripes or mottling and a black collar on each side of the neck. 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
Sceloporus uniformis
Family
Phrynosomatidae
In North America
Native
Range
California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah (Mojave, Great Basin and San Joaquin deserts); endemic to the United States, not in Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Large, robust spiny lizard: adults to about 5.5 in (14 cm) snout-to-vent, tail slightly longer than the body. [1][2][3]

Brown or tan with yellow and black dorsal stripes or mottling and a black collar on each side of the neck. [1][2][3]

Males are larger, with a swollen tail base, enlarged postanal scales and femoral pores, and bluish markings on the throat and belly. [1][2][3]

Females have a pale throat and belly with faint or no blue; a female's head may turn orange or reddish in the breeding season. [1][2][3]

Compared with the desert spiny lizard (sceloporus magister): Treated as a subspecies of S. magister until recently; the sources read give no field character, so separate mainly by range and the black neck collar with yellow dorsal pattern described here. [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 yellow-backed spiny lizard before you act. Compared with the desert spiny lizard (sceloporus magister): Treated as a subspecies of S. magister until recently; the sources read give no field character, so separate mainly by range and the black neck collar with yellow dorsal pattern described here.[1][2][3]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Arid and semiarid country from plains to lower mountain slopes: desert shrubland and woodland, mesquite-yucca grassland, juniper and mesquite woodland, shrubby arroyos and cottonwood-willow along rivers. [1][2][3]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Mainly an ambush predator that sometimes forages actively; eats ants, beetles, grasshoppers, spiders, centipedes and caterpillars, and occasionally small lizards, nestling birds and plant material. [1][2][3]

Basks in the morning on rocks or other sunlit hard surfaces and shelters, usually underground, during the hottest part of a summer day. [1][2][3]

Hibernates from late fall through winter and emerges in spring. [1][2][3]

Uses trees, rocks and the ground near cover; eggs are laid in soil. [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.

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

California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah (Mojave, Great Basin and San Joaquin deserts); endemic to the United States, not in Canada.

Biology

Sources

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

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. U.S. Bureau of Land Management · reviewed 2026-09-30

    U.S. Bureau of Land Management

  3. Wikipedia · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Wikipedia