Dan's default #1: improperly planted.

All that is apparent from the information provided is that there is some top dieback and the birch is planted in the lawn. Pruning doesn't make a tree "recover".

Dan

What's the soil moisture situation? Did you keep a close check on soil moisture for at least the first full year? How have you been watering?

"As you can see ALL of the leaves died on the top branches of the main truck"

Duh??

"My yard doesn't get a lot of sun"

Birch needs full sun to grow well. That may well be tha cause of your problems.

Resin

"That may well be tha cause of your problems."

Double duh??

"Birch needs full sun to grow well. That may well be (the) cause of your problems."

The light exposure may be a problem, but the pattern of defoliation/dieback doesn't suggest that to be the immediate problem, to me.

Hang in there Bluepoppy, that was a perfectly reasonable question. Maybe you can get some help calling your local Cooperative Extension office. Also, need to see the whole picture of where and how the tree was planted, there are lots of things that can cause branch die off. You can prune out the dead wood, at least then it won't look as unsightly. The tree may recover, depends on many other factors. Sun is definately needed for birches to thrive. In the long run this tree is probably always going to struggle in the shade.

seriously guys.. mocking typos.. whats next.. mocking typing skills ... or maybe the use of "..." .... triple duh???

poppy .. where are you .. any winter extremes this year

how did you water it last year .... any summer weather extremes ???

pic of the trunk at the ground ...

dead wood should be properly pruned out.. but with this small pic.. i can not make any further suggestions ...

trees NEVER need fertilizer .... especially if they are within a few feet of the lawn.. and if you fert the lawn ....

what if any chemicals were applied to the lawn last season ... or this one ...

more info please

ken

I only mock typos found in the posts of people mocking typos or being "mean". (-;

You won't catch me mocking spelling, typos, syntax. That could bring a most unpleasant experience due to my own difficulties.

To OP, we can't give you good advice without more pictures and info as requested. It can be any number of issues, but one of the most common is being planted too deeply. I was at a friends subdivision yesterday that was planted 2-3 years ago as a new construction project. Nearly every tree was planted too deep, mulch volcano-ed, and was in process of failing. Several were snapped off in a recent storm. To look for this problem, is one of the primary reasons we need a picture of the base of the tree where it enters the ground.

Arktrees

There appears to be a whopping great tree in the background. Is this birch planted underneath that tree? If so that wouldn't help it.

Something, exactly what is hard to say and hard to tell, caused the tree to have a difficult time/go into shock, and like with humans, it pulled back and supported just the essential parts of the tree's core, it did not have enough energy to support last year's growth so it shut down that part. Oversimplification but that's the gist of it. Now it's trying again by leafing out. It may or may not survive. I would hazard a guess that it will never thrive in the shade. Birches, especially the foreign varieties like European and Himalayan, etc, are beautiful trees, but they are short-lived, relatively weak and prone to all kinds of problems. You can hope for the best, or cut your losses and plant something that thrives as an understory tree in the shade. There are some beautiful flowering trees with interesting bark, a tree called "Stewartia" comes to mind, although that one can be hard to find. However, I would plant it in a heartbeat if I only had some shade! Korean dogwood might be an option but it needs some sun, which I don't know if you have. If it is deep shade, two lovely trees are Pagoda dogwood, and Mountain maple, which is sometimes called "Striped Maple." It doesn't have white bark, but when it gets bigger, you can see white stripes on its greenish bark. Paperbark maple has peeling bark similar to birch. Anyway, you probably weren't looking for tree planting recommendations, but I'm trying to get you ready for what might be inevitable with your birch. If, on the other hand, you have some sun available at some times of the day, the birch might soldier on, but it will lean towards the sun and probably always struggle.

I have seen this happening with a lot of the Himilayan and Weeping Birches in our area in the past few years. We have had a huge problem with bronze birch borers here. I just lost my Youngii to borers this past year. You might look on the trunk or around the area where the dying part meets the living part to see if there are any holes in the trunk that are shaped like the letter "D". If so, then that's probably what's killing your tree. My understanding is that when it's gotten that far, the tree cannot be saved.