Tantilla rubra
Silhouette: Jessica Tingle · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Tantilla rubra, also known commonly as the red black-headed snake, the Big Bend black-headed snake, and la rojilla in Spanish, is a species of snake in the subfamily Colubrinae of the family Colubridae. The species is native to southern Mexico and western Guatemala.
Tantilla rubra is found in the Mexican states of Chiapas, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, and Tamaulipas and in western Guatemala. The preferred natural habitat of Tantilla rubra is forest, at altitudes from sea level to 2,618 m (8,589 ft).
Tantilla rubra is terrestrial. Tantilla rubra is oviparous. Boulenger, G.A. (1896). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ), Amblycephalidæ, and Viperidæ. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I–XXV. (Homalocranium rubrum, p. 219).
Cope, E.D. (1875). "On the Batrachia and Reptilia of Costa Rica: With Notes on the Herpetology and Ichthyology of Nicaragua... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red Black-headed Snake sighting in Cumbres de Monterrey National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 25th most-seen of the 43 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March, June–August and October–November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red Black-headed Snake in Cumbres de Monterrey National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April–May, September and December–February, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red Black-headed Snake sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is seen both by day and at night.
Only Cumbres de Monterrey National Park, in our data
Cumbres de Monterrey National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Red Black-headed Snake sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Colubridae
The closest relatives of the Red Black-headed Snake that you can see in Cumbres de Monterrey National Park (family Colubridae, Colubrid Snakes) are Northern Cat-eyed Snake (about 10%), Baird's Ratsnake (about 10%) and Great Plains Ratsnake (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red Black-headed Snake is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Cumbres de Monterrey National Park (13 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
