Cottonmouth or Copperhead!! Snake ID ??

The dark stripe through the eye is a dead giveaway for the cottonmouth ID. As for the yellow tail.... A lot of your young vipers will have a bright yellow tail that they use like a lure to help them catch frogs and lizards. As the snake gets older and more able to stealthily hunt larger critters like mice, fish, or whatever will fit in the mouth, the tail fades.

Wow-I wuold have sworn copperhead. Good to know the info about the black stripe.
Karen

So just to help out, here are some images of both snakes:

Cottonmouth: http://www2.stetson.ed​u/~pmay/quiz/3d.htm

Young copperhead: http://www2.stetson.ed​u/~pmay/quiz/8a.htm

Cottonmouths usually get darker as they get older.

It usually depends on if the snake uses profanity or not.

A copperhead will say, Please leave me alone.

A rattlesnake will say, "get the hell away from me."

But a cottonmouth will use every foul word you can think of. Very impolite snakes.

This particulat specimen was not very agressive, unlike many cottonmouths that I have come across. But it was a cool evening, and he was most likely on the pavement warming up.

Thanks to all, appreciate the photo links, and I have since found another link showing a young copperhead with the yellow tail. Yep I know they do get older with age, here is a photo of another cottonmouth I came across a month or so back. I did not have any problem with his identity!!