These birds, which live in the extreme north of the Arctic for most of the year, migrate to the California coast and New England shoreline in the winter. They have all-black heads and necks that are broken up only by a white stripe that runs around the base of the skull. (Those from the West have dark undersides, too, while the eastern birds have lighter ones.) They subsist mainly on eelgrass in the winter and hardly ever travel inland, spending most of their time on the coast.