| 1 | Golden tree snake |
Maximum length: 140cm.
Among nearly 4000 snakes worldwide, the golden tree snake might be the single most likely to accidentally land on your head. This species is found in a swathe of southeast Asia, from India to Malaysia. According to this Thai snake expert, they’re the country’s most frequently sighted snake by ordinary people.
The golden flying snake (Chrysopelea ornata) is common in villages and public parks, and has a love of thin tree branches, with a nervous, twitchy demeanor. All this already increases their chances of falling off a branch and landing on you, but when you throw in their flying abilities, the chances multiply exponentially.
The golden flying snake is one of 5 airborne species in the world, and the most widespread alongside the paradise flying snake. Their entire hunting strategy revolves around spotting geckos on distant branches, or the ground, and then gliding after them at high speeds. Only slightly misjudging this can easily bring them into contact with a human being’s head.
More than any other Thai snake, this species has a high chance of plummeting onto your scalp or hat, or even your face if you sense something and instinctively look upwards at the last moment. Golden tree snakes also have a tendency to stash themselves in dark attics, or even bathrooms. They’re just as happy on manmade roofs as in tree canopies. While this species has a mild venom, they’ve never caused a serious injury in humans.
| 2 | Gopher snake |
Maximum length: 267.7cm.
Gopher snakes are ordinarily found in open areas of the western US, such as hillsides, grasslands and crop fields. Yet there’s a strong possibility that while fishing peacefully on a river shore, a random gopher snake will fall from the sky and land on your head.
There’s one simple reason for this: gopher snakes are popular prey for the USA’s many predatory birds. According to a study along the Columbia River in Washington state, 18% of the red-tailed hawk’s diet consisted of gopher snakes. In a study from California’s San Joaquin, gopher snakes were preyed on by red-tailed hawks 225 times, while the local rattlesnakes were preyed on 83 times.
Something about gopher snakes just tastes fantastic, and since they won’t accept their fate meekly, a gopher snake can easily break free from a bird’s clutches in mid-air, just as the hawk is celebrating mentally. Thus, they may come in contact with a blissfully relaxed fishermen, startling him and possibly knocking his hat off.
Fortunately, gopher snakes themselves are non-venomous, if fairly aggressive. Seeing as the Colombia River is a proven gopher-hawk battleground, you should exercise extreme caution there. But any open area in California, Oregon, or Washington state could be home to gopher snakes plummeting from the sky.
| 3 | Ball python |
Maximum length: 182cm.
Ball pythons are an abundant species in Nigeria, Ghana and Togo, particularly on farmland. They were long assumed to eat mammals, and they mostly do, swallowing up rodents for farmers who commonly worship them as deities.
However, it turns out that ball pythons have a large gender split: females ate 67.7% mammals, while males ate 70.2% birds. This means that males are found in trees much more commonly, and it also makes them highly likely to land on your head, whether you’re a hardworking cocoa farmer or an overexcited tourist flashing a camera.
According to captive keepers, this species is far from secure on branches. Various social media posters have inquired fearfully as to why their ball python keeps falling from the manmade branch in its terrarium, only for others to reassure them that it’s normal.
Like the black ratsnake, ball pythons are decent climbers at best. They ascend trunks just fine, but they don’t cling to thinner branches as deftly as a Blanding’s catsnake (also found in Nigeria). They’re unable to effortlessly coil their bodies around branches either, as this species is relatively thick, with no long and prehensile tail.
Ball pythons are a common species in Nigeria, compared to the rarer African rock python. High numbers automatically means a higher chance of random snakes plummeting onto your head, particularly given that they live close to inhabited farmland and villages as well.
| 4 | Brown watersnake |
Maximum length: 177.6cm.
The brown watersnake is such a classic species for dropping on people’s heads that it has generated an entire myth. The myth relates to the cottonmouth, one of the southern USA’s most dangerous snakes. Supposedly, aggressive cottonmouths often climb tree branches over rivers, and wait on them patiently. As a fisherman’s boat sails below, the cottonmouth will leap onto the deck and murder the entire crew, who try in vain to kill the snake with a shotgun.
In reality, this has never happened. Cottonmouths hardly ever climb trees. But the myth is based off genuine observations, namely those of the brown watersnake.
This species really does climb tree branches over lakes and rivers, and it really does jump off, occasionally into boats. This species lacks a venom, and submerging underwater is its default defensive strategy. Therefore, when resting on branches, it has a strong tendency to simply release all muscle control, and drop down into the water, vanishing from sight.
This also increases the brown watersnake’s chances of landing on fishermen’s heads, and a myth was forever born. Brown watersnakes are abundant in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, and bear a close resemblance to cottonmouths, but have round pupils rather than vertical. This species is regularly observed on tree branches doing absolutely nothing, making them relatively easy to photograph as well. Rather than swamps, they tend to prefer the shores of rivers and clear lakes.
| 5 | Reticulated python |
Maximum length: 6.95 metres (wild).
If this giga python plummeted onto your head, then there’s no way you wouldn’t realise it. The reticulated python is the world’s longest snake, yet they’re much more adept at climbing than people realise.
Rather than a lazy ambusher, this is an inquisitive, curious snake which often gets drawn onto roof rafters, lampposts and even electricity cables for inexplicable reasons. They can drape themselves around a wooden roof for hours, which in turn means dozens of people having to tiptoe beneath them.
Reticulated pythons range from Bangladesh in the north to Java in the south. They’re common in urban zones like Singapore, and as the image above shows, being crushed by one is a very real risk. With a maximum length of nearly 7 metres, their weight can exceed 200 pounds, making them a rare snake to be heavier than a human.
Walking below a reticulated python like shown above must be very intense. The one redeeming feature is that reticulated pythons have a secure climbing grip, despite being so colossal that the roof seems to be about to cave in. Young reticulated pythons have also been observed to climb tree branches, and drop down into rivers when spooked, very similarly to brown watersnakes.
| 6 | Beauty ratsnake |
Maximum length: 280cm.
The beauty ratsnake (Elaphe taeniura) is a common species in the leafy villages of southern China, reaching as far south as peninsular Malaysia. This species is able to swallow hundreds of mice per year, making them a friend of farmers, despite an aggressive (non-venomous) temperament.
Beauty ratsnakes often hang out in farm buildings and crop fields, hiding behind hay bales and old machinery. But it’s their extreme climbing tendencies which make them likely to land on your head. More than most southern Chinese snakes, this species has a huge tendency to stash itself in roofs. They can slither up walls vertically, where they seek out the breeding dens of mice in attics. They’re also known to hunt bats, such as Yaeyama least horseshoe bats, which also roost in roofs.
While strong climbers, beauty ratsnakes aren’t infallible, and may lose their grip on a roof and plummet straight back to the ground. Their next destination is a farmer’s head, knocking off his precious hat.
Farmers, villagers, postmen, and even the local mayor have a high chance of a beauty ratsnake landing on their head. There’s also a cave-dwelling subspecies, Ridley’s cave racer, which often slithers vertically up the stone walls, potentially dropping on your head from another angle. Tourists exploring caves in Thailand and Malaysia should always keep an eye out for this subspecies.
| 7 | Grass snake |
Maximum length: 205cm.
The grass snake is a totally harmless species of the British Isles, which lives in ponds, streams and moist fields. They almost never climb trees, nor do they climb walls and enter roofs. Yet they still have the power to land on an innocent person’s head, once again due to hungry birds.
Chris Tredwell was a 7 year old dog walker enjoying a stroll through Hartsholme Country Park in 2020. Looking up, he saw a black crow carrying what he initially thought was a twig. But it was actually a grass snake, as he discovered when the serpent landed at his feet, barely missing his head.
The grass snake moved slightly, startling his dog. Whether the grass snake had escaped or the over-encumbered bird had deliberately released it was never established.
Grass snakes are completely harmless, with no dangerous venom nor vicious fangs. However, they won’t simply accept their death if picked up by a bird, and will always try to wriggle free. There’s no harm if they land on you, even if they’re draped around your face like a piece of green spaghetti. But they do have a tendency to release a foul serpent smell when frightened. The unluckiest dog walker in Britain could be treated to this at the exact moment a grass snake collides with him from above.
| 8 | Painted bronzeback |
Maximum length: 125cm.
Earlier on this list we discussed the golden flying snake, part of the 5-member Chrysopelea genus, all found in India and southeast Asia. Worldwide, this group is most closely related to the Dendrelaphis bronzeback genus, which has at least 53 members, including the green tree snake of Australia and more.
The two share similarities, being extremely thin branch dwellers, which dart away when humans draw near, and prey heavily on reptiles. Landing on innocent people’s heads may be another similarity. There’s a good reason, as some bronzebacks possess a rare ability to jump. Witness this video of a painted bronzeback from Malaysia. It shows the snake thrusting its body upwards, accelerating into a vertical arch and somehow gaining speed in mid-air, performing an amazing leap between two branches.
According to scientists, this jump likely formed the evolutionary base which the Chrysopelea flying snakes later developed further. Painted bronzebacks only have a basic version, but if anything, this makes them even more likely to land on your head. It’s inevitable that sometimes, they’ll mess these jumps up, failing to grab the opposite branch, misjudging angles, or who knows, even being blown off course by an unusually strong wind.
Painted bronzebacks have some physical similarities for jumping – their underside has a mild upside-down U shape, less so than the golden flying snake, which can change its body shape at will, but by enough to increase stability on branches.
Fortunately, this species is only mildly venomous. If a painted bronzeback lands on your head in Thailand or Malaysia, then death is not guaranteed – nightmares might be.
| 9 | Mangrove catsnake |
Maximum length: 2.5 metres.
The mangrove catsnake is a species of southern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia. It possesses neurotoxins such as irditoxin, whose strength in humans is still a mystery, and preys heavily on birds and mammals.
This species barely looks like the brown watersnake at all, yet has one similarity. Mangrove catsnakes spend hours resting on branches each day, and when threatened, their default is to drop from those branches into a water body below, such as a river or lake.
Mangrove catsnakes often appear in nature reserves near inhabited areas, including the Upper Peirce Nature Reserve in central Singapore. Therefore, there’s a very real risk that like a fisherman in Florida, a mangrove catsnake could drop from a branch as a group of chattering explorers approach, or a tourist boat with photographers.
This species measures up to 2.5 metres, and the situation would be no joke. All you’d see would be dense black and bright yellow, followed by a madly hissing serpent face. Fortunately, no deaths are confirmed from this snake. You can’t fail to recognise the mangrove catsnake, as no other large snakes in southeast Asia have such distinctive yellow and black patterns.
| 10 | Eastern ratsnake |
Maximum length: 228cm.
The eastern ratsnake is a common species west of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and more, which lacks venom and kill its prey via constriction. They measure 100-180cm, and move steadily and patiently. Birds make up 20-42% of the western ratsnake’s diet (study), and eastern ratsnakes follow a similar diet, as they regularly raid birds’ nests directly.
While eastern ratsnakes climb tree trunks with aplomb, they’re less secure on branches than they’d like to be. Unlike an Asian green pitviper, they don’t coil around tree limbs, instead balancing more precariously like a tightrope walker. If they mess with the wrong bird’s nest, then the furious mother could arrive in seconds, and assault the snake in a flurry of squawking and feathers. One sharp peck could send the eastern ratsnake plummeting to the ground.
Social media forums like reddit are full of people querying about a snake that just fell out of their backgarden tree. In a disproportionate number of cases, the answer turns out to be an eastern or grey ratsnake. One tale involved a man in his in-laws’ backgarden in Florida in 2018. All seemed well, until a black ratsnake randomly jumped from a banana tree and wrapped itself around his arm. According to the man: “The snake literally flew off the tree“. Fortunately, he was able to throw it harmlessly into the bushes.
The same can happen for western ratsnakes or grey ratsnakes, their close relatives. Fortunately, all Pantherophis ratsnakes are relatively docile, though still capable of biting.