A self-balancing tree is a type of data structure that automatically maintains its height to ensure efficient operations like insertion, deletion, and search. This balancing helps keep the tree's height logarithmic relative to the number of nodes, which optimizes performance. Common examples of self-balancing trees include AVL trees and Red-Black trees. These trees adjust their structure after modifications to maintain balance. For instance, when a node is added or removed, the tree may perform rotations to redistribute nodes and preserve its balanced state. This ensures that operations remain efficient, typically taking O(log n) time, where n is the number of nodes in the tree.