Physical Description

Copperheads are thick-bodied snakes with keeled scales. The northern copperhead has an unmarked, copper-colored head and reddish-brown, coppery body with chestnut brown crossbands. The bands are mostly hourglass-shaped, with the wider portions of the shape on either side of the snake's body and the narrower part of the shape crossing the snake's back over the tailbone.

Young copperheads are grayer in color compared to adults and have a sulfur yellow-tipped tail, which fades over time and is lost by age 3 or 4.

The northern copperhead as a vertical pupil and a single row of scales on the underside of its body after the anal plate — features also found on some venomous snakes in Virginia.

The copperhead is a pit viper and, like others pit vipers, it has heat-sensitive pit organs on each side of its head between the eye and the nostril. These pits detect objects that are warmer than the environment and enable copperheads to locate nocturnal, mammalian prey.

Copperheads have fangs that release a hemolytic venom, a venom that causes the breakdown of red blood cells, used to subdue prey. The length of the snake's fangs is related to its size — the longer the snake, the longer its fangs. Even newborn copperheads have fully functional fangs capable of injecting venom that is just as toxic as an adult's venom. This snake's fangs are replaced periodically throughout its life; each snake has a series of five to seven replacement fangs located in the gums behind and above its current fangs.

Though the copperhead is the cause of many snakebites annually, those bites are rarely fatal. They typically occur when someone accidentally touches or steps on a snake that is well camouflaged within its surroundings. When touched, the copperhead may quickly strike or remain quiet and try to slither away.