Birch was born to parents Donald and Elizabeth Draper eleven years after his elder brother, Dan, while they were stationed in Grand Forks North Dakota. They moved to Texas shortly after he had turned one, and then to Andrews AFB in Washington DC when he was four. This was due to his father being in the Air Force, and accepting promotions which came with re-assignments.
When his elder brother Dan decided to follow in their father's footsteps, he enroll in the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Their father arranged another transfer to Petersen AFB nearby, the last move for the family.
Growing up on military bases and frequent moves meant that Birch had few permanent friends, and he relied upon his elder brother for companionship quite often. This became especially true after their father was re-deployed to Saudi Arabia when the situation in the middle east began to heat up again. Once his brother graduated from the Academy, he was deployed to Spain, and Birch was left pretty much alone.
His mother, Elizabeth grew concerned over her son's lack of socializing, noticing that he spent long hours either in his room or in a small play yard talking to himself. He always claimed to be talking to a friend named Shilo.
Elizabeth thought it would be a good idea to get him other activities which would get him some interaction with other people, and when a program opened up to teach karate to servicemen and spouses, she implored the instructor to take on her son.
Birch surprisingly took to these lessons right away, eagerly looking forward to each one. The fact that he no longer talked to his imaginary friend, Shilo, was seen by his mother as a good sign. However, the instructor was arrested for possession of child porn about a month after Birch began lessons. Birch was very quiet after that. Elizabeth asked if the karate instructor had done anything wrong to Birch, and Birch denied that he had done anything wrong.
She tried a different karate instructor, but Birch appeared to have lost interest. So, when Birch showed some interest in music, she arranged for him to take piano lesson.
Like he had before when he first started taking karate, he threw himself into it, advancing quickly, and learning pieces on his own that he liked. This carried him through his high school years where he kept pretty much to himself, doing very little socializing.
This seemed to change when he got to college. His father was disappointed that Birch never showed any interest in a military career, and even more when Birch decided he wanted to The University of Colorado and live on campus in Boulder, rather than commute from home and go to the more local campus. but his grades never suffered, in fact improving as he grew closer and closer to graduating. He also seemed to socialize more. He learned guitar, percussion, and brass in addition to his keyboard work before graduating Cum Laude in four years.
Shortly after graduating, he travelled to Los Angeles California to break into the music business there. He was hired as a vocalist and keyboardist for the band Grizzly, Stoat, and Birch which had just formed. He stayed with them for two tumultuous years before suddenly quitting amid some ugly rumors about artistic differences with hints of a sex scandal.
He attempted to start a solo career, which proved disasterous since he concentrated on his vocal work rather than his songwriting. He took this as a total rejection of him, and sank into a deep funk as his funds dwindled. Finally, he felt forced to make a choice: move back in with his parents in Colorado, or move in with his brother.
The latter seemed a bit more appealing to him, so he contacted them, and they allowed him to stay with them. There, through a number of odd quirks of happenstance, he formed The Beach Bears which proved successful. Birch chalked this up as the appeal of Dipper's voice coupled with his light-hearted song writing.
Birch has medium brown fur, tending on the reddish side, except for the fur atop his head which is a sandy cream color. Spots of this same color cover this head, shoulders, chest, and arms, ending about at the waist. He will wear a variety of different clothes, but for some reason prefers to wear a camoflage u-neck and green shorts for album pictures.
He is not fat, at all, in fact is rather barrel chested, giving him almost a muscular look, although he has never really worked out.
