Adults have a dark brown with a white head and tail, yellow eyes and beak.
The immatures are all dark with some white mottled in the wings and tail. The eyes and beak are dark. As the birds mature around 4-5 yrs of age they start getting the white tail and head and the eyes and beak start turning yellow. Formerly distributed across North America, they are now limited to breeding in Alaska, Canada, the northern Great Lakes states, Florida, and the Pacific Northwest. In Minnesota they commonly breed on northern lakes and along the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers.