Northern Red-Bellied Snake
A small woodland snake that is either gray brown or reddish brown, normally with 4 narrow, dark stripes, a faint light tan stripe down the middle of the back, or some combination of this striping. The head is usually darker than the body, and the nape of the neck has 3 light spots, which occasionally fuse to form a tan collar behind the head. The belly is yellow, orange, red, or occasionally pink.
Similar species: This species is sometimes mistaken for a young copperhead and needlessly killed. Copperheads, however, are stout-bodied and have hourglass-shaped markings on the back, vertical pupils in the eyes, a sensory pit between each nostril and eye, and, sometimes, especially in young copperheads, a yellow tail tip.