Blue whales are named for a steel blue-gray skin color. Minke, humpback, bowhead, and fin whales are distinctively colored. Northern hemisphere Minke whales have a band of white across the otherwise black flipper. Individuals in the southern hemisphere may or may not have the flipper band. Humpback whales are black or gray except for their flippers and the undersides of their flukes, which are white.
Bowhead whales are dark gray to black except for a white chin.
A fin whale's head is asymmetrically colored. The right lower lip is white, and the rest of the head is black or gray. Fin whales also have a grayish white chevron-shaped mark on their backs. D. Pectoral flippers. The forelimbs of baleen whales are pectoral flippers.