Birch

A birch tree looks fairly similar to a small oak tree in terms of height and leaves. It is most commonly found in birch forest biomes. Tall birches are found only in tall birch biomes which the player can not be grown with saplings without the use of cheats. The closest real world tree to the Minecraft birch is grey birch.

Variants
There are two types of birch trees: a shorter tree that can be grown by the player with birch saplings; and a taller, more rare tree that generates only naturally in tall birch forest biomes. Birch trees that are grown from saplings grow to be 5 to 7 blocks tall, while birch trees in the tall birch forest biome can generate up to 13 blocks in height (not considering leaves).

Leaf arrangement
All birch trees lack branches. Birch trees always grow around 50 to 60 leaves. The leaf distributions are shown visually above, each table cell representing one 'slice' of the tree viewed from above. The transparent leaves represent areas where leaves may grow, but do not always. The growth pattern, in detail, is as follows:
 * The topmost row is one above the height of the tree and always has exactly 5 leaves: one above the log and four orthogonally adjacent to it, forming a + shape.
 * 5 leaves
 * The second row is the top of the trunk and also has 4 leaves adjacent to it. Diagonal leaf blocks grow from a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 corners of the log.
 * 5 - 7 leaves
 * The third row has the log in the middle, surrounded orthogonally and diagonally by leaf blocks. Those 8 leaf blocks are also surrounded orthogonally, for an additional 12 leaf blocks. One can think of this as a 5×5 space where every block is leaves except the four corners. These corners are randomly filled with between 0 and 4 leaves, although having all four filled is rare.
 * 20 - 24 leaves
 * The fourth row generates with the same rules like the third and thus has a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 24 leaf blocks.
 * 20 - 24 leaves
 * The fifth and sixth (bottom) rows contain no leaves, only the log in the center. If the tree is 6 or 7 blocks tall, the additional 1 or 2 rows at the bottom are also just a log.
 * No leaves

Small oak and 1×1 jungle trees also have this arrangement of leaves.

Generation
Regular birch trees generate in forests, birch forests and dark forests, while tall birch trees only generate in tall birch forests.

A regular birch tree may generate with a bee nest attached.

Blocks and items
These items can be obtained from birch trees, except that saplings cannot be obtained from tall birch:
 * (if present on a tree near flowers)
 * (harvested with shears)
 * (harvested with any tool including hands)
 * (created from a log in the inventory crafting grid)
 * (normal birch only; chance of dropping when breaking leaves)
 * (if present on a fallen log)
 * (created by an axe on a log)

Breeding
Birch saplings can be planted on:

Only normal birch trees can be grown from saplings. Tall birch trees generate naturally in the world.

Birch trees require a 3×3 column of unobstructed space at least 6 blocks above the sapling to grow (7 blocks including the sapling itself). Additionally, birch trees require 5×5 layers without obstruction for the top 3 layers of its final height. No horizontal clearance is needed at the base of the tree (a sapling planted in a hole 1 block deep can still grow).

A birch tree grown from a sapling and within 2 blocks of a flower has a 5% chance of having a bee nest containing 2 bees.

Fallen birch trees
$$, a fallen birch may consist of a single upright log, or a stump. Logs lying on their side are often found 1–2 blocks from the stump. They occasionally have mushrooms on top.

A fallen birch tree has a log length of 5–8 blocks. A fallen tall birch has a log length of 5–15 blocks. The stump is never covered with vines.

Foliage colors
Birch leaves do not follow the foliage color rules that cause the trees to appear in different colors in different biomes. Birch leaves are always the same color regardless of the biome.

Trivia

 * In real life, birch is a genus tree known as Betula which contains 30 to 60 known taxa.