This was obviously a birch tree but what distinguishes it from a yellow birch, gray birch, and river birch is that slightly papery texture where it looks like it is peeling off at some spots on the bark. River birches have a super papery and peeling looks with a light brown color instead of white bark. Yellow birch has a yellow or almost golden color and is also very peel but peels horizontally in small strips unlike the random less frequent peels on the paper birch. The gray birch is the most similar to the paper birch but doesn’t peel at all and has quite smooth bark.
