Juveniles are brown or tan with indistinct dark dorsal crossbands. It is found throughout Florida, excluding the keys. Outside of Florida, it is found from Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, east to North Carolina. However, it is absent from most of the Mississippi River delta. It is locally abundant, and occurs primarily in pine and palmetto flatwoods, longleaf pine-turkey oak sandhills, scrub, and along the beaches interspersed with sand dunes, sea oats, and grape vines.
Coachwhips are active during the day, are extremely fast on the ground, and are great climbers.
Its diet consists of lizards, small mammals, and birds. Breeding takes place in the spring, and a clutch of 12-16 eggs is laid in late spring and early summer. Little is know about longevity in the wild, but captive coachwhips have lived more than 16 years. This belief has no basis in fact. Violently lashing its body around like a whip would immediately break the snake's back and spinal cord lashing its body like a whip would be committing suicide.