Overview
Old growth birch forest is the tall-birch variant, and the difference is entirely in the trees: birches here grow to roughly 11 to 15 blocks with a proper canopy instead of the 5 to 7 blocks of an ordinary birch forest. The practical effect is a lot more wood per sapling and a genuinely different look — a stand of tall pale trunks with a high leaf ceiling that still lets light through, so the floor does not go dark the way a dark forest does. Everything else follows the ordinary birch forest: grass and flowers on the ground, lily of the valley, bee nests on a small proportion of trees, and the standard temperate animal set of cows, sheep, pigs and chickens. Note that the tall growth is a property of the biome, not of the sapling: a birch sapling taken home and planted elsewhere grows the short version, so if you want tall birch you have to build in the biome or use bone meal in it. Old growth birch forest is uncommon and generates beside ordinary birch forest, forest, and river.
Birch logs in far greater volume per tree than an ordinary birch forest, lily of the valley for white dye, bee nests, and tall pale trunks that make a distinctive build site.
Old Growth Birch Forest is a temperate biome that generates in the Overworld. Its base temperature of 0.6 places it in the temperate band, which controls whether water freezes, whether it rains or snows, and which passive mobs are allowed to spawn there.
Weather reaches Old Growth Birch Forest: it rains during storms, so crops grow and cauldrons fill on their own.
2 mobs name Old Growth Birch Forest specifically among their spawn biomes: Bee and Wolf.
Forest biomes are the game's default temperate terrain: trees dense enough to need a path cut through them, grass and flowers on the floor, and passive animals in the clearings. They are where most players build, because wood, food and a flat-enough surface all occur together.
How to get it
Old growth birch forest generates as a rare variant next to ordinary birch forest. Judge it by trunk height — anything above about 8 blocks of birch means you are in the old-growth version.
Tips
- Fell the whole trunk: a tall birch gives roughly 2 to 3 times the logs of a standard one for the same 1 sapling.
- A birch sapling replanted outside this biome grows short, so harvest here rather than transplanting for height.
- Lily of the valley gives 1 white dye each and is far cheaper than grinding bones into bone meal.
- Light the floor before building; the canopy is high but still leaves patches at light level 0 by mid-afternoon.
Climate and generation
Old Growth Birch Forest has a base temperature of 0.6, which puts it in the temperate band. Temperature is not a thermometer reading — it is the single number that decides snow versus rain, whether water freezes over, and what colour the grass renders.
Above 0.15 water stays liquid and any precipitation falls as rain.
| Property | Value | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 0.6 | Decides whether rain falls as snow, whether water freezes, and the grass and foliage tint. |
| Precipitation | Yes | Cauldrons fill on their own and farmland stays hydrated during a storm. |
| Dimension | Overworld | Sets which mobs, structures and ores can generate at all. |
| Grass and water tint | #7AA5FF | The colour the game applies to grass, leaves and water in this biome. |
Properties
- Grass and water tint
- #7AA5FF
- Structures generating here
- 0
Mobs in Old Growth Birch Forest
Bee and Wolf name Old Growth Birch Forest specifically as a spawn biome, so this is where you go to find them.
On top of those, the mobs that spawn in open terrain anywhere in the Overworld can appear here too, given the right light level. Mobs that only come from a structure or a spawner — breezes from trial chambers, blazes from fortresses, evokers from mansions — are deliberately not in this list.
Also spawns throughout Overworld
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find Old Growth Birch Forest?
Old Growth Birch Forest generates in the Overworld. A locate command finds the nearest one instantly; without cheats, exploring in one direction and watching the F3 screen's biome line is the reliable method.
What spawns in Old Growth Birch Forest?
Bee and Wolf spawn here specifically, and the usual Overworld mobs can appear given the right light level.
Does it rain in Old Growth Birch Forest?
Yes — as rain. Cauldrons fill on their own during a storm and farmland stays hydrated.
Related pages
Biomes that generate in the same dimension and, where there are any, in the same climate family as Old Growth Birch Forest.
