Walnut and Maple Slabs For Sale

Birdseye Maple

Birdseye is a very special form of sugar maple wood that is characterized by a wavy grain and tiny rounded figures known as “bird’s eyes”. This type of maple wood is also known as rock maple or hard maple.

Distinct Features

Birdseye maple is an attractive wood that occurs naturally in a very tiny proportion of all sugar maple trees. The “eyes” that make this particular type of maple wood so special occur naturally; they cannot be cultivated or produced intentionally. Birds eyes develop in the tree when it is very young and they continue to increase in size as the tree grows bigger.

Every birdseye maple tree has unique features. The appearance of the eyes in each tree is consistent within that tree. However, the eyes are usually smaller at the heart than at the bark of the tree. A few trees have eyes with a fairly constant size.

The eyes come in various shapes and colors. Some eyes are round while others are oval or c-shaped. There are also eyes that appear like streaks of rain on a window pane. Some trees have bird’s eyes that are black in color while others are slightly darker than the other parts of the wood.


Birdseye maple trees produce wood with a diverse range of colors. Examples of the colors of wood include white, cream, pink, and fawn brown. The color of the wood within the tree usually varies from the bark to the heart. In some trees, there is a gradual change in color from a light tone to a darker tone. But other trees may have a very abrupt change in color.


Birdseye maple wood is hard wood. The eyes in the wood give it a divergent grain structure. The presence of a buff or flash figure may also add more variety to the grain structure. Although the divergent grain structure made birdseye maple wood a bit difficult to work on initially, modern spiral cutter heads and CNC machines now make them very easy to handle.


Initially, birdseye maple wood was primarily used to produce musical instruments. But today it is used for many woodworking projects. The uncommon grain structure makes it an excellent choice for luxurious furnishing and for panels in expensive cars, and private jets. Birdseye maple wood is also used for architectural panels, flooring, pool cues, jewelry boxes, kitchen cabinets, store fixtures, picture frames, entertainment centers, and kitchen utensils.