Birdseye Maple is a truly exotic species, if only because of its rarity.  The wood is of course hard maple, but for some reason, yet to be clearly understood, in some rare cases the tree grows little "eyes" throughout the wood.  The eyes can range from 1/8" to 3/8" in diameter, and vary significantly in density from a few eyes per board to 3 or 4 eyes per square inch.  Some of these clocks are Birdseye Maple, some are Maple Burl, where the burl portion was not very usable and had to be trimmed off, while yet others are cut from the heart stock of the maple.  In all cases, you will notice various grains and colors that feature fascinating grey, reddish brown or black streaks, as well as various degrees of spalting in the wood.  So even though all of the clocks may have the same shape and be of similar size, each clock is different and some can be quite dramatic in appearance, a truly unique gift for any occasion.