Well, the name is almost self-explanatory. Black bears appear to be black or a very dark brown.
Well, as they are called black bears, a black bears tongue is actually blue.
American Black Bears have full color vision.
Black.
brown
Black. It is actually not black. It is a light tan color. (I have a mounted Black Bear in front of me)
black or blue
There are many subspecies of American black bears, and the NW USA has several. You need to look up the subspecies of black bears at the library to find a map, and compare that to your area of interst. There are actually no small brown bears in a black color, though there are black bears in a brown color. These bears are called cinnamon bears. Blacks also come in white, albino, blonde, glacier blue and purple (so black it has a purple hue)
They don't change color as time goes by, by black bear's hues include blonde, red, brown, and black. They may lighten if they're constantly put in sunlight, but nothing has happened to prove this so far.
Yes, in the western parts of their range, they are fairly common. Called "cinnamon bears", they are merely a color phase of the black bear.
The black bears of western British Columbia's Islands often have white individuals in the population, around 30% of the black bears here are white. They can be born to black parents, and are not a seperate species. The general color is an off white, creamy color.
Eastern black bears are always black. Other colors are found west of the Rockies.
That's not actually true. There are bears in California. There are California Black Bears.