# Identifying birdseye in standing tree



## qbilder

Hi folks. Does anybody know how to identify birdseye maple in standing trees? I found a few trees I suspect have birdseye but not sure. I got a couple pics of one tree in question, a pic from several feet away and a close up. These trees are in the Sacramento Mts. in NM. I know, a long way west for maple but it is hard maple almost identical to sugar maple. We have a few maple types out here, all hard, all similar to sugar and black maple. I'll include pics of leaves from two different trees. The clue to me is that the trees have tiny birdseye looking indents all over them. It's kinda like woodpecker holes but it's just tiny dents instead of holes and there's no pattern like woodpeckers leave. The trees are funky looking, too. They just aren't right. Anybody have any ideas?


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## Logger

*Birds eye*

All the birds eye that i have seen, the trees look hairy. Where the hairs are is what caused the eyes, I have found it in ash a few times also.


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## jeffreythree

Sap suckers make those holes in a line around the tree through the bark to drink the sap. I have plenty of hickories and a few elms that have those rows of holes. The old ones grow back in and only the outer bark shows the hole. It can cause 'bird peck' in the lumber where bark pockets fill the holes.


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## slabmaster

*birdseye*

I don't see any signs of birdseye in the pictures you show. There usually will be craters just under the bark that show it very well.


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## qbilder

Thanks, guys.


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## jeffreythree

A similar thread popped up elsewhere and someone milled some poplar that the birdpeck made a nice pseudo-birdseye figure. You can also see a few dots of bark inclusion instead of figure here and there.


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## rrbrown

Funny I was just wondering what caused "birdseye" and was reading this. It states about not knowing if it exist until the tree is felled and cut.

*Bird's eye figure*

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the type of lumber. For the mineral property, see Bird's eye maple (mineral property)



*Bird's eye* is a type of figure that occurs within several kinds of wood, most notably in hard maple. It has a distinctive pattern that resembles tiny, swirling eyes disrupting the smooth lines of grain. It is somewhat reminiscent of a burl, but it is quite different: the small knots that make the burl are missing.
It is not known what causes the phenomenon. *Research into the cultivation of bird's eye maple has so far discounted the theories that it is caused by pecking birds deforming the wood grain or that an infecting fungus makes it twist. However, no one has demonstrated a complete understanding of any combination of climate, soil, tree variety, insects, viruses or genetic mutation that may produce the effect.*
Bird's eye maple is most often found in _Acer saccharum_ (sugar maple), but millers also find bird's eye figure in red maple, white ash, Cuban mahogany, American beech, black walnut, and yellow birch. Trees that grow in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States yield the greatest supply, along with some varieties in the Rocky Mountains. *Although there are a few clues in a tree's bark that indicate the lumber might have bird's eye figure, it is usually necessary to fell the tree and cut it apart to know for sure.*
* Characteristics*

In most characteristics, wood with bird's eye figure is no different from the rest of the wood from the same tree. Depending on the frequency of the birdseye swirls, each ⅛" to ⅜" wide (0.3–1 cm), the wood may be extremely valuable. While woodworkers prize the timber primarily for its use in veneers, it also turns well on a lathe, allowing it to be shaped into decorative canes, chair legs, and handles.


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