A Guide to the Amphibians
and Reptiles of California

Western Fence Lizard - Sceloporus occidentalis

Coast Range Fence Lizard - Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii

Boulenger, 1885

Click on a picture for a larger view

Description • Taxonomy • Species Description • Scientific Name • Alt. Names • Similar Herps • References • Conservation Status

Dark Blue: Range of this subspecies in California
Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii - Coast Range Fence Lizard

Range of other subspecies in California:

Bright Green: Sceloporus occidentalis becki -
Island Fence Lizard

Bright Blue: Sceloporus occidentalis biseriatus -
San Joaquin Fence Lizard

Orange: Sceloporus occidentalis longipes -
Great Basin Fence Lizard

Red: Sceloporus occidentalis occidentalis -
Northwestern Fence Lizard

Purple: Sceloporus occidentalis taylori -
Sierra Fence Lizard

Dark Gray: Hybrid Zones

Click on the map for a topographical view

Map with California County Names

Adult female, San Benito County

Adult female, Alameda County

Adult male, Santa Clara County © Yuval Helfman

Adult, Solano County

Adult male, Napa County

Adult, Contra Costa County

Adult female, San Mateo County

Adult female, Contra Costa County

Adult male, Contra Costa County

Adult male, Monterey County

Adult female, San Mateo County

Adult female, Contra Costa County

Adult, Monterey County

Most adult male Western Fence Lizards have pale coloring on the throat and venter around the patches of blue, but some are black like this male found in southern Napa County during the breeding season. His blue coloring is also very intense. © Ryne Starling

Adult, Marin County © Lou Silva

Adult, Contra Costa County

Adult male, Santa Clara County © Yuval Helfman

Adult, San Luis Obispo County © Ryan Sikola

Adult male, Alameda County, playing dead after being released. © Yuval Helfman

Adult female, San Luis Obispo County

Adult with a nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge from a stone lookout at the crest of the East Bay Hills, Contra Costa County

Adult, San Francisco County
© Luke Talltree

Adult, Alameda County
© David Rodriguez

Sometimes fence lizards are very dark before they have warmed up in the sun, like this one. They can look like they're completely black at a distance. This can cause problems for some people trying to identify a lizard that doesn't look like a typical fence lizard they see in pictures.

Adult female, San Luis Obispo County
© Joel A. Germond

Very dark adult male, San Luis Obispo County © Joel A. Germond

Two adults in San Luis Obispo County, showing how they can be variable in color. © Joel A. Germond

Two adult females sharing a basking spot in early Fall in San Luis Obispo County © Joel A. Germond

Adult male, Santa Clara County (notice that the throat is not blue.)
© Yuval Helfman

After release from capture, this lizard remained motionless in the position seen here for about a minute before turning over and running away.

Adult, Marin county, showing salt excreted from its nares (nostrils).
© 2001 Guntram Deichsel

Two different species of lizards, an adult Skilton's Skink and a Coast Range Fence Lizard, were observed basking together frequently in a backyard garden in Marin County in April. This might represent a mate-guarding behavior by a male skink that confused the fence lizard with a female skink, or maybe they're just sharing a good basking spot, unconcerned about any threat from the other lizard.

Adult, San Luis Obispo County, with several ticks in its ear opening.
© Ryan Sikola

Adult male with ticks on the side of his head and in his ear.

In California, western black-legged ticks (deer ticks) are the primary carriers of Lyme disease. Very tiny nymphal deer ticks are more likely to carry the disease than adults. A protein in the blood of Western Fence Lizards kills the bacterium in these nymphal ticks when they attach themselves to a lizard and ingest the lizard's blood. This could explain why Lyme disease is less common in California than it is in some areas such as the Northeastern states, where it is epidemic.

More Information

Western Fence Lizards have overlapping keeled scales with spines on them over much of their body.

Unusually-Colored Coast Range Fence Lizards

This unusually-colored lizard was photographed in February in Contra Costa County. © Alice Castellanos

Occasionally I receive pictures of similarly-colored spiny lizards, but I have not learned what causes the unusual color, whether it is a naturally-occuring aberrant coloration, or if it is artificially added somehow by chemicals or by spores and pollen. You can see more pictures of orange or gold spiny lizards on this page.

Tiny albino hatchling, missing part of its tail, from Alameda County.
(Photographed with an old Polaroid camera in the late 1970s that did not want to focus on the tiny lizard.)

Adult female with bright orange coloring, Marin County, © Rosey Rosenke

Albino hatchling found in late September, Santa Clara County © Amanda Law

Hypomelanistic juvenile, Marin County
© Emile Bado

Hypomelanistic juvenile, Marin County
© Adam Gitmed

Juveniles

Juvenile, Contra Costa County

Hatchling in fall, Contra Costa County

Male Combat and Other Breeding Season Behavior

Two colorful adult males fighting during the May breeding season, San Luis Obispo County. © Joel A. Germond

On a sunny afternoon in May in Contra Costa County, the adult male on top chased the female on the bottom, keeping on top of her and not letting her get away.

Feeding

Pacific Gopher Snake eating a Western Fence Lizard

This San Luis Obispo County Coast Range Fence Lizard crept up to an adult Antlion, lunged to catch it, then swallowed it whole. © Joel A. Germond

Predation

California Striped Racer eating a male Great Basin Fence lizard

Sean Kelly © shot this series of a California Striped Racer eating a male Great Basin Fence lizard in San Diego County.

Juvenile fence lizards are preyed upon by many other animals, including the black widow spider. © Rory Doolin

An adult Coast Range Fence Lizard eating a juvenile of the same species in San Luis Obispo County. © Joel A. Germond

A California Striped Racer swallows a male Northwestern Fence Lizard in
El Dorado County © Jim Bennett

Coast Gartersnake eating a Coast Range Fence Lizard in San Luis Obispo County
© Joel Germond

Juvenile Pacific Gopher Snake eating a Western Fence Lizard © Daniel Harris

California Striped Racers eat mosly lizards. This one is swallowing a Western Fence Lizard while holding the front third of its body straight up off the ground. This racer usually hunts with its head in this elevated position.

Habitat

Habitat, Contra Costa County

Sandy wash with rocky edge habitat,
San Benito County

Lizard in habitat, Alameda County

Habitat, Napa County

Habitat, Monterey County

Habitat, San Luis Obispo County

Habitat, Contra Costa County

Coastal dunes habitat, Monterey County

Habitat, East Bay Hills,
Contra Costa County

Coastal scrub habitat, Marin County

Habitat, Contra Costa County

Habitat, Contra Costa County

Habitat, San Mateo County

Habitat, Sonoma County

Short Videos of Coast Range Fence Lizards

A few fence lizards in Contra Costa County.

A male fence lizard on a tree in Alameda County.

Several juvenile fence lizards come out to bask in the sun on a cool and windy morning in early March.

Two Coast Range Fence Lizards observed during the breeding season in early May in San Benito County. The first lizard, a female, has moved from her perch on a rock to a nearby rock in order to get away from the photographer. She begins a territorial push-up display when a male comes up the side of the rock and begins to pursue her. She arches her back and hops away in order to reject him. She may have already mated and is bearing eggs, or maybe he is not her type. He finally stops and does a push-up display, possibly to continue trying to entice her, or possibly to warn the photographer that this is his territory.

Two male fence lizards on the edge of a paved road in San Luis Obispo County size each other up for 20 seconds until one of them makes a move on the other starting a slight skirmish, that ends up as more of a test than a fight.
© Joel A. Germond

Short Videos of Other Subspecies of Western Fence Lizard

A male Northwestern Fence Lizard defecates off the side of a Butte County fence, wipes himself off, then does a territorial push-up display.

I'm not going out of my way trying to film this behavior - I can only take what I get - so here we see another Northwestern Fence Lizard doing his business for the camera. It's like they're trying to tell me something.

San Joaquin Fence Lizards on trees along a river in early spring.

Sierra Fence lizards run around a rocky area in the woods 8,000 ft. high in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

A Sierra Fence Lizard, or intergrade, runs around rocks in the forest up at 5,600 ft. in Tuolumne County.

A female fence lizard runs across a wall in Riverside County and encounters a male who pursues her. She rejects him and he runs to an open spot on top of the wall and does a push-up display.

A male fence lizard in Inyo County defensively showing his throat color and doing push-ups.

Large, dark phase Great Basin Fence Lizards bask and eat ants off rocks in Inyo County.

These two videos show a Placer County Northwestern Fence Lizard appearing to taunt a garter snake (a Mountain Gartersnake is my guess, because it lacks red.) The lizard keeps moving down towards the snake but when the snake moves towards the lizard, apparently trying to catch it for dinner, the lizard runs up the wall away from the snake. © Rod

Description

Size

2.25 - 3.5 inches long from snout to vent (5.7 - 8.9 cm). (Stebbins 2003)

Appearance

A fairly small lizard with large overlapping keeled scales with spines on them on the back and sides.
Scales on the backs of the thighs are mostly keeled.

Color and Pattern

Color is brown, gray, or black with blotches.
Sometimes light markings on the sides of the back form stripes or irregular lines, and sometimes dark blotching may form irregular bands.
The rear of the limbs is yellow or orange.
The base color of the throat and underside are typically pale to dark gray and sometimes black.

Male / Female Differences

Males have blue markings on the sides of the belly edged in black, a blue patch on the throat, enlarged postanals, enlarged femoral pores, and a swollen tail base.
On some males the throat and dorsal coloring around the bright blue can be very dark.
Some scales on a male's back and tail become blue or greenish when he is in the light phase.

Females have faint or absent blue markings on the belly, no blue or green color on the upper surfaces, and dark bars or crescents on the back.

Young

Juveniles have little or no blue on the throat and faint blue belly markings or none at all.

Differences Between the Western Fence Lizard and the Similar Sagebrush Lizard in California

Life History and Behavior

Activity

Diurnal.
Often seen basking in the sun on rocks, downed logs, trees, fences, and walls.
Prefers open sunny areas.
Active when temperatures are warm, becomes inactive during periods of extreme heat or cold, when they shelter in crevices and burrows, or under rocks, boards, tree bark, etc.

Common and easily encountered in the right habitat.
This is probably the species of lizard most often seen in the state due to its abundance in and near populated areas and its conspicuous behavior.

Territoriality

Males establish and defend a territory containing elevated perches where they can observe mates and potential rival males.
Males defend their territory and try to attract females with head-bobbing and a push-up display that exposes the blue throat and ventral colors. Territories are ultimately defended by physical combat with other males.

Defense

The tail can break off easily, but it will grow back.
The detached tail wriggles on the ground which can distract a predator from the body of the lizard allowing it time to escape.
More information about tail loss and regeneration.

Diet and Feeding

Eats small, mostly terrestrial, invertebrates such as crickets, spiders, ticks, and scorpions, and occasionally eats small lizards including its own species.

Invasive Argentine ants are generally rejected by ant-consuming California Reptiles, but a Western Fence Lizard was observed consuming them in Santa Barbara County. (Herpetological Review 38-1 2007)

Reproduction

Mates in early to late spring, depending on the elevation of the location.

Courtship and copulation typically occurs from March to June.
Egg laying occurs 2 - 4 weeks after copulation.
Females dig small pits in loose damp soil where they lay 1 - 3 clutches of 3 - 17 eggs usually from May to July.
Eggs hatch in about 60 days, usually from July to September.

Western Fence Lizards and Lyme Disease

In California, western black-legged ticks (deer ticks) are the primary carriers of Lyme disease. Very tiny nymphal deer ticks are more likely to carry the disease than adults. A protein in the blood of Western Fence Lizards kills the bacterium in these nymphal ticks when they attach themselves to a lizard and ingest the lizard's blood. This could explain why Lyme disease is less common in California than it is in some areas such as the Northeastern states, where it is epidemic.

More Information: (Berkeleyan April 1998)

In an interesting twist, UC Berkeley researchers have found that when fence lizards are removed from an area, the population of Lyme disease-carrying ticks plummets. Up to 90 percent of juvenile Western black-legged ticks, the species that carries the Lyme disease bacteria, feed on Western Fence Lizards. When lizards are no longer available, 95 percent of the ticks fail to find another host to feed on.

More Information: (Berkeley News February 2011)

Habitat

Found in a wide variety of open, sunny habitats, including woodlands, grasslands, scrub, chapparal, forests, along waterways, suburban dwellings, where there are suitable basking and perching sites, including fences, walls, woodpiles, piles of rocks and rocky outcrops, dead and downed trees, wood rat nests, road berms, and open trail edges.

Geographical Range

This subspecies is endemic to California. Found from north of the San Francisco Bay Area south throughout the Bay Area to Santa Barbara County.

The species Sceloporus occidentalis ranges from northern Baja California north to Washington and east to Idaho, Nevada and Utah.

The ranges of subspecies shown on the range map above are based mostly on Ryan Calsbeek's distribution map.

An alternate interpretation of the ranges of S. o. longipes and S. o. occidentalis showing S. o. occidentalis present in northeastern California and central Oregon instead of S. o. longipes can be seen here.

Elevational Range

The species Sceloporus occidentalis - Western Fence Lizard, is found at elevations from sea level to around 10,800 ft.
(3,300 m.) (Stebbins, 2003) This subspecies may not be found at such a high elevation.

Notes on Taxonomy

The taxonomy of Sceloporus occidentalis needs to be studied further. Six subspecies have been traditionally recognized based on geographic variation in morphology, but molecular studies have identified four major clades and eleven different genetic groups in California (James Archie, Cal State University Long Beach). The current taxonomy does not correspond with the ongoing research, so it is certain that in the future the current subspecies and their ranges will be completely revised, probably with several new species described. For this reason some experts no longer recognize any subspecies of S. occidentalis pending further studies.

I am taking a conservative approach, retaining all six of the traditionally-recognized subspecies on my list until a definitive study of the species is published and accepted.

The most recent SSAR Names List (2017) removed the subspecies S. o. taylori and now shows only five subspecies, but many authorities have already accepted research that concludes that S. o. becki, the Island Fence Lizard, is a unique species - Sceloporus becki (Wiens & Reeder, 1997) (Bell, 2001) which would leave only four subspecies of S. occidentalis.

Alternate and Previous Names (Synonyms)

Commonly called: Bluebelly, Blue-bellied Lizard, Fence Lizard, Swift, Fence Swift

Sceloporus occidentalis - Western Fence Lizard (no subspecies recognized) (Stebbins 2003, 2012, 2018)
Sceloporus occidentalis biseriatus - Great Basin Fence Lizard (Stebbins 1966, 1985)
Sceloporus occidentalis biseriatus - Western Fence Lizard (Smith 1946)
Scelopoorus occidentalis occidentalis - Pacific Blue-bellied Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus var. bocourtii, part; Sceloporus frontalis; Sceloporus undulatus occidentalis, part; Scelopus undulatus undulatus, part; Sceloporus undulatus thayeri, part. Western Fence Lizard; Western Alligator Lizard, part; Pacific Swift; Thayer's Alligator Lizard; Alligator Lizard, part.) (Grinnell and Camp 1917)

Conservation Issues (Conservation Status)

None

Taxonomy
Family	Phrynosomatidae	Zebra-tailed, Earless, Fringe-toed, Spiny, Tree, Side-blotched, and Horned Lizards	Fitzinger, 1843
Genus	Sceloporus	Spiny Lizards	Wiegmann, 1828
Species	occidentalis	Western Fence Lizard	Baird and Girard, 1852
Subspecies	bocourtii	Coast Range Fence Lizard	Boulenger, 1885
Original Description
Sceloporus occidentalis - Baird and Girard, 1852 - Prox. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 6, p. 175 Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii - Boulenger, 1885 - Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus., 2nd ed., Vol. 2, p. 229 from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
Meaning of the Scientific Name
Sceloporus - Greek -skelos leg and porus - pore or opening - refers to the femoral pores on hind legs occidentalis - Latin - western - refers to its western distribution bocourtii - Latin - honors Bocourt, Marie F. from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
Related or Similar California Lizards
Western Fence Lizards: Sceloporus occidentalis becki - Island Fence Lizard Sceloporus occidentalis biseriatus - San Joaquin Fence Lizard Sceloporus occidentalis longipes - Great Basin Fence Lizard Sceloporus occidentalis occidentalis - Northwestern Fence Lizard Sceloporus occidentalis taylori - Sierra Fence Lizard Sagegrush Lizards: S. graciosus graciosus - Northern Sagebrush Lizard S. graciosus gracilis - Western Sagebrush Lizard S. graciosus vandenburgianus - Southern Sagebrush Lizard Sceloporus magister uniformis - Yellow-backed Spiny Lizard
More Information and References
California Department of Fish and Wildlife Stebbins, Robert C., and McGinnis, Samuel M. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Revised Edition (California Natural History Guides) University of California Press, 2012. Stebbins, Robert C. California Amphibians and Reptiles. The University of California Press, 1972. Flaxington, William C. Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Field Observations, Distribution, and Natural History. Fieldnotes Press, Anaheim, California, 2021. Samuel M. McGinnis and Robert C. Stebbins. Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles & Amphibians. 4th Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2018. Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Powell, Robert., Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. The University Press of Kansas, 1998. Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Turtles and Lizards of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009. Jones, Lawrence, Rob Lovich, editors. Lizards of the American Southwest: A Photographic Field Guide. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2009. Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Lizards, Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Cornell University Press, 1946. Wiens & Reeder (1997 Herpetological Monographs 11: 1-101) Bell (2001 Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society 37(4): 137-142) S. Morey. Western Fence Lizard Family: Phrynosomatidae R022. California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System California Department of Fish and Game. Originally published in Zeiner, D.C., W.F.Laudenslayer, Jr., K.E. Mayer, and M. White, eds. 1988-1990. Joseph Grinnell and Charles Lewis Camp. A Distributional List of the Amphibians and Reptiles of California. University of California Publications in Zoology Vol. 17, No. 10, pp. 127-208. July 11, 1917.

Conservation Status
The following conservation status listings for this animal are taken from the January 2024 State of California Special Animals List and the January 2024 Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Animals of California list (unless indicated otherwise below.) Both lists are produced by multiple agencies every year, and sometimes more than once per year, so the conservation status listing information found below might not be from the most recent lists. To make sure you are seeing the most recent listings, go to this California Department of Fish and Wildlife web page where you can search for and download both lists: https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CNDDB/Plants-and-Animals. A detailed explanation of the meaning of the status listing symbols can be found at the beginning of the two lists. For quick reference, I have included them on my Special Status Information page. If no status is listed here, the animal is not included on either list. This most likely indicates that there are no serious conservation concerns for the animal. To find out more about an animal's status you can also go to the NatureServe and IUCN websites to check their rankings. This animal is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
Organization	Status Listing	Notes
NatureServe Global Ranking
NatureServe State Ranking
U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA)	None
California Endangered Species Act (CESA)	None
California Department of Fish and Wildlife	None
Bureau of Land Management	None
USDA Forest Service	None
IUCN

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