He was best known for his depiction of the titular hero of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1886 novel Little Lord Fauntleroy, which started a craze in juvenile fashion.

Birch died at the age of eighty-seven of congestive heart failure at the Home for Incurables[1] in the Bronx, New York.

Birch's artistic talent first emerged in San Francisco, where he helped his father prepare wood-block theatrical posters.

From 1873 to 1881 Birch studied and worked in Europe, attending the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and illustrating various publications in Vienna, Paris, and Rome.

His first great success was his illustration of Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's book Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), whose young protagonist's long, curly hair and velvet and lace suit were widely imitated by mothers as a pattern of dress for their little boys.