The eyes are very small and lips are huge. The females are slightly larger than males, as with all baleen whales. The bowhead whale's skin is usually black with a white spot on the lower snout.
Calves are blue to gray colored.
Bowheads have no dorsal fin and no throat grooves. Bowheads are skimmers, filter feeders that swim slowly with their mouth open, constantly eating. On occasion, they are also bottom feeders, eating benthic prey from the mud on the ocean floor. The bowhead whale has about 350 pairs of black baleen plates with silver-colored bristles hanging from the jaws. They may use echolocation to determine the thickness of the ice.