A clergyman and member of the Royal Society, Birch is best known for his prose works as a compiler of histories and biographer. Throughout his life, he was heavily indebted to the patronage of the Hardwicke family; he dedicated many of his works to his patrons. His only known poem was occasioned by the death of his wife and published in the Whitehall Evening Post. As such, poetry was not a career for Birch so much as a one-time way to elegize his wife.