Both snakes are a similar color and both are common in Arizona, yet only one is venomous.

PHOENIX — 'Tis the season for rattlesnake sightings in Arizona! It's also a season many people wonder if the snake they see is actually a rattlesnake, or simply a harmless gopher snake.

The two reptiles have similar patterns and colors, but only one can inflict a harmful bite.

"Very easy to confuse a gopher snake and a rattlesnake, it's an understandable mistake," Kevin Tew with the Phoenix Herpetological Society says.

Obviously, the biggest difference between the two snakes is the rattle, but rattlesnakes can actually lose their rattle for a myriad of reasons—meaning you can't bank on seeing or hearing a rattle before coming dangerously close to one of these venomous reptiles.

"Even if a rattlesnake is missing its rattle, its tail is going to end in a blunt point, not a sharp point like this [gopher] snake," Tew said.

So, rattlesnakes have a blunt or flat ending to their tail and a gopher snake's tail ends in a point.

Another distinct difference is in the snake's head.

"Rattlesnakes have a pronounceably triangular shaped head," Tew says.

Gopher snakes have a flatter shape to their head that blends more into its body.