Hello, Darcy- and welcome to English Forums. Your sentence needs a bit of rearrangement: They are light, mottled grey overall, and they have a pink bill. (By the way, what are we speaking of here, immature albatrosses?)

Yes, and not very subtle. The first asks about responsibility; the second asks about assignment.

Simply: it is indicative if it uses 'was' and subjunctive if it uses 'were'. The first sounds overly casual to me, too, but many native speakers use it.

No, that is indeed not the right structure; you seem to be confused yourself. There are several future forms in English, and two of them are 'will' and 'be going to'; hence, you cannot use both together. You can use these: He's going to swim/run

pined away for = sadly hoped for look back at = think about (probably in the past)

It does not apply to 'unless'. 'It were' only applies to some 'if' clauses-- those of the 2nd conditional.

When I was taking an undergraduate communications course, it struck me how much the technology has developed and how far-reaching its impact has been.

There is no rule; it is a peculiarity of each verb. Please tell her. Please speak to her. Please say to her that.... Please ask her. Please inquire of her.

What is the connection of can/could with decisions?

Yes. The phrase is a shortened version of the clause 'If the truth be told', and should be parsed as such or just as an intejection.