Alabama’s pine flatwoods, sandy ridges, and backyard gardens support a surprising range of reptiles, and among the many types of lizards in Alabama are three species that have no legs at all. According to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Alabama is home to 93 native reptiles, including 12 lizards, 49 snakes, 31 turtles and the American alligator, and four exotic lizard species have established populations in south Alabama.
Three of these native lizards look so much like snakes that most people mistake them for one of the many snake species found in Alabama rather than a harmless, legless lizard. This guide covers seven native lizards found across the state, from the elusive mimic glass lizard to the sun-loving green anole, with the field marks that separate each one from its lookalikes.
| Species | Typical Length | Legs | Preferred Habitat | Alabama Conservation Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slender Glass Lizard | Up to 42 inches | None (legless) | Dry open woodlands, grasslands | Uncommon to rare; moderate concern |
| Mimic Glass Lizard | About 7 inches snout-to-vent | None (legless) | Longleaf pine flatwoods, wet prairies | Rare; highest conservation concern |
| Coal Skink | Up to 7 inches | Four short legs | Moist forests near streams | Protected; high conservation concern |
| Southeastern Five-lined Skink | 5 to 8.5 inches | Four legs | Dry sandy woodlands, pine flatwoods | Protected; high conservation concern |
| Ground Skink | Small, around 3 inches or more | Four short legs | Leaf litter in forests | Lowest concern; common statewide |
| Northern Green Anole | Slender, medium build | Four legs, climbing toe pads | Trees, shrubs, gardens | Lowest concern; common statewide |
| Mole Skink | Small; a few inches | Four small legs | Sandy or rocky areas with debris | Low; possibly declining |
1. Slender Glass Lizard
The slender glass lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus longicaudus) is one of three legless lizards native to Alabama, and it’s often the one mistaken for a snake sliding through tall grass. Alabama is home to three species of reptile in the genus Ophisaurus, and often mistaken for snakes, glass lizards possess only vestigial legs or lack them entirely. A close look reveals the difference, since despite their resemblance to snakes, they are true lizards, distinguished by their ear holes and eyelids, features snakes lack.
Adults reach an impressive size for a lizard. This legless lizard attains a maximum length of about 42 inches, with individuals tan or brown on top and light colored below, marked by a series of dark stripes along the sides and sometimes down the center of the back. The most reliable way to separate this species from Alabama’s other two glass lizards is to check below the lateral groove, since the best way to distinguish the slender glass lizard from the other two species is the presence of dark stripes below the lateral groove running along the sides of the lizard.
Like other glass lizards, this species has a fragile tail that snaps off easily when handled. Glass lizards get their common name from their easily broken tail, which often breaks into one or more pieces when grabbed or handled roughly. In Alabama, it’s uncommon to rare statewide, though most occurrences are north of the Fall Line Hills, and its range beyond the state stretches well into neighboring territory, since slender glass lizards are found from southeast Virginia south to Florida, west to Louisiana, north to Tennessee and portions of central Kentucky. Readers curious how this range compares can check the lizards found in Tennessee for a related regional list.
This species prefers dry, open woodlands or grasslands, where it feeds on small invertebrates, including insects and spiders. Larger individuals aren’t picky eaters, either, since larger individuals may also feed on small snakes, frogs or other lizards. Anyone wanting more natural history on the group can visit the Encyclopedia of Alabama’s glass lizard entry.
2. Mimic Glass Lizard
The mimic glass lizard (Ophisaurus mimicus) is the smallest and rarest of Alabama’s three glass lizards, and it may be the hardest species on this list to actually find. Mimic glass lizards are easily the smallest of the three native Alabama species of Ophisaurus, with a maximum snout-vent length of 181 millimeters, or 7.1 inches. It is a long, slender, limbless lizard superficially resembling a snake, relatively recently described in the scientific literature.
Coloring helps with identification, though it takes practice to apply in the field. Its dorsal color is tan to brown and may or may not have light and dark speckling, usually with a mid-dorsal dark stripe on the body and most of the tail, though the stripe may be faint. Positive identification often requires more than a glance, since only counting scale rows along the lateral fold can positively identify mimic glass lizards.
This species depends on a specific, fire-maintained habitat type. Mimic glass lizards are narrowly associated with longleaf pine forests, where they tend to prefer frequently burned areas with seasonally saturated soils. In Alabama, only three documented occurrences exist, from the southern portion of the state’s Dougherty Plain and Southern Pine Plains and Hills, and its broader range runs along the Lower Coastal Plain from southeastern North Carolina to the Pearl River in Mississippi, apparently absent from peninsular Florida. That range is worth comparing against the lizards native to Florida for context on how coastal-plain species overlap between the two states.
Important Note: Sources disagree slightly on this species’ current status in Alabama. The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources lists the mimic glass lizard as rare and of highest conservation concern, while other state wildlife summaries suggest it may not have been observed in Alabama in many years and could be extirpated. Either way, a confirmed mimic glass lizard sighting in the state is a genuinely notable find.
3. Coal Skink
The coal skink (Plestiodon anthracinus) is a secretive, moisture-loving lizard that spends most of its life hidden in leaf litter near running water. Coal skinks are found in mixed forests with regular water supplies, and they prefer to live near streams in leaf litter. Adults reach up to 7 inches long and have smooth scales.
Telling a coal skink apart from Alabama’s other striped skinks takes a close look at its face and tail. The sides of adults have a dark brown band bordered by narrow light stripes, and the back is tan to brown between the dorsolateral light stripes, lighter than the lateral band. It also differs from the broad-headed skink, five-lined skink, and southeastern five-lined skink by being smaller, having an undivided postmental scale, and, in younger individuals, having a dull blue rather than bright blue tail. Compared with two species covered later in this guide, it’s larger than the ground skink and has light stripes or markings on the upper lips, and it’s larger than the mole skink, with proportionately larger legs, full-length light stripes in adults, and a brown tail, since mole skinks in Alabama have a red or pink tail instead.
This species is one of Alabama’s legally protected skinks. Coal skinks and southeastern five-lined skinks are protected, so a license is required to collect, purchase, or sell them. They also tend to cluster in specific corners of the state, since coal skinks are most likely to be found in the northwestern and southwestern areas of Alabama. Like the state’s other skinks, they rely heavily on insects and other small invertebrates, including many of the same spiders found across Alabama, for food.
4. Southeastern Five-lined Skink
The southeastern five-lined skink (Plestiodon inexpectatus) looks nearly identical to two other Alabama skinks, and telling them apart in the field usually requires close inspection. Adults measure 5 to 8.5 inches long and are moderately large lizards with short legs and a streamlined body. The body is generally gray, brown, or black in background color, with five white or yellowish stripes—two on each side and one down the center of the back.
Age and sex change its appearance considerably as it matures. Older males may become a uniform bronze, tan, or olive ground color with broad, dark, lateral stripes, and the heads of mature males typically swell and turn red or orange, especially on the jaws; very old males have completely red heads, but females do not. Because it resembles its relatives so closely, capture and inspection of the midventral scale row under the tail is necessary to classify individuals definitively, since southeastern five-lined skinks have scales in this row that are nearly equal in width to adjacent scale rows.
This species favors drier ground than most other Alabama skinks. In Alabama it frequents xeric ridge tops and other places with well-drained sandy soils, and can be found in dry, open woodlands and pine flatwoods, cut-over areas, especially along forest edges. Despite its intimidating pattern, it is harmless to humans and only delivers a non-venomous bite if it feels threatened. It shares many of these dry, open habitats with several frog species native to Alabama that also depend on pine flatwoods for cover.
Pro Tip: If you spot a striped skink with a blue tail in Alabama, resist the urge to identify it by color alone. The five-lined skink, southeastern five-lined skink, and broad-headed skink all share this pattern as juveniles, and only scale counts under the tail can confirm which species you’re actually looking at.
5. Ground Skink
The ground skink (Scincella lateralis) is one of the smallest and most commonly encountered lizards in Alabama, though its size makes it easy to overlook underfoot. Among the more notable and widely distributed lizards in the state are the terrestrial ground skink, the arboreal green anole, and the fence lizard. At just three inches long, it ranks among the smallest reptiles in Alabama.
Its coloring blends easily into forest floor debris, making it one of the harder species to spot despite being common. Like most skinks, it has relatively short legs and a thin, elongated body, with color varying from light golden brown to almost black with a bronze tint, and a broad dark stripe extending down both sides of the body from the nostrils through the eyes to the tail. Its belly and underside are yellowish white, and it has a transparent disk in the lower eyelid, known as a nictitating membrane, that covers and protects the eye.
This is one of the more widespread and common lizards in Alabama and across much of the eastern United States. Ground skinks range throughout the eastern United States, from Kansas to the East Coast, south to the Florida Keys, and as far west as northern Mexico, and are most common in the Coastal Plain and eastern Piedmont regions. They inhabit dry, open, deciduous and mixed forests with abundant leaf litter, and can also be found along the edges of grasslands, ponds, and streams.
Because it hides in the same damp leaf litter used by many salamanders native to Alabama, gardeners often find both groups sharing the same mulch piles and rotting logs. According to the List of reptiles of Alabama, the ground skink carries the lowest conservation concern ranking among the state’s native lizards, reflecting how widespread and stable its population remains.
6. Northern Green Anole
The northern green anole (Anolis carolinensis) is the lizard most Alabama residents will already recognize, since it’s the state’s only native anole. The northern green anole is Alabama’s only native anole, and this type of lizard is an agile climber that prefers to live in above-ground environments. It is a hardy and tenacious species of lizard.
Males put on one of the more recognizable displays among any of the common lizards in Alabama. Males have a red or orange throat flap that expands when breathing, and this dewlap helps them attract a female. Their diet keeps them close to gardens and porches, since their diet consists of small insects and invertebrates like spiders, slugs, and worms.
Because it’s colorful, active during the day, and easy to observe, the green anole is also one of the most frequently kept native lizards in the pet trade, alongside many non-native species covered in guides to popular pet reptiles. It shares backyard habitat with plenty of other common Alabama wildlife, including several species of bats found across the state that hunt many of the same insects the anole eats after dark.
7. Mole Skink
The mole skink (Plestiodon egregius) is one of the least often reported lizards in Alabama, and much of what’s documented about it comes from comparisons with its more common relative, the coal skink. Alabama’s mole skinks are smaller than the coal skink, with proportionately smaller legs and a red or pink tail rather than a brown one. That coloring, paired with its small size, makes it one of the easier skinks to identify once you know what to look for.
Habitat preference sets this species apart from most other Alabama skinks. Mole skinks prefer rocky areas with piles of debris, including driftwood, shrubbery, and tidal wrack. This habit of hiding under cover rather than basking in the open is one reason it turns up so rarely in surveys, in contrast with the more visible desert species documented in guides to lizards found in Texas.
Conservation records reflect just how uncommon this species has become in Alabama lizard identification surveys. Species like coal, southeastern, and northern mole skinks are rare, and finding them can be difficult even within their known habitats. Compared with the arid-adapted lizards covered in guides to lizards found in Arizona, Alabama’s mole skink relies on humid coastal habitat rather than desert terrain, a reminder of how differently related skink species adapt across the country.
Taken together, these seven native Alabama reptiles show just how much variety exists among the lizard species Alabama has to offer, from legless glass lizards that glide through grass to a single native anole that flashes color from the garden fence. Most backyard encounters will involve the common, widespread species—ground skinks, green anoles, and five-lined relatives—while the rarer glass lizards and mole skink reward patient searching in the right habitat. Anyone building a broader Alabama wildlife guide can use the field marks above as a starting point for identifying whatever turns up under a log or basking on a fence rail.