Vi

Yep, this is also a thing in Java. 

I've been using /summon minecraft:boat ~ ~ ~ {type:"birch"}, because it's the only command I can find on the internet being suggested. 

The command executes, but it summons oak. 

Reply from @unknown:
Wrong command, type needs to be capitalized:

/summon boat ~ ~ ~ {Type:birch}

I've actually experienced a server crash from a panda, but the mesage was Conection timedout: too.many.stack.overflow