Birdwatching Binoculars

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Bird Watching Binoculars
Whilst most people come on a safari in Africa to see the large mammals: lions, elephants, giraffe, leopards and rhinos, there is so much more to African wildlife, especially the fantastic variety and numbers of birds. Working as a safari guide, I have always owned a pair of binoculars that were suitable as birdwatching binoculars as well as general outdoor and wildlife binoculars (what I would call good safari binoculars). If you plan to use your binoculars for general use as well as birdwatching, I think that a good pair of binoculars for safaris are ideal, good all rounders as it were. But what if you are after binoculars for birdwatching as the main priority? Lets go over what makes the best birding binoculars:

How to choose Binoculars for Bird Watching
I think the best way is to first look for all the features on a pair of binoculars that you need for bird spotting and rate them in importance and then we can find which binoculars have most or if possible all the features that we are looking for in our price range:

>Magnification for bird binoculars

Getting closer is the main reason for getting binoculars for birds and so this is where most people start. To do this you need tome sort of optical magnification, zoom, or as some people call it the 'power' of the binoculars. What we are aiming for is to get as close to the bird to distinguish as much detail as possible. So you may wonder why not just go for the biggest zoom? The more magnification means that the binoculars will be harder to hold steady, you get a narrower field of view, and less apparent depth of focus. A few things can be done to make the binoculars steady, like a tripod or even electronically powered stabilization, like the excellent range of Canon Stabilized Binoculars but even 10x may be too difficult for some people to handle.

If you plan on using one pair of binoculars for all your bird spotting, 8x magnification is a good compromise and is probably the choice of most birders. I personally use a 10x binocular, which offers slightly more detail, but to be honest does not make the difference between you being able to identify a bird or not, it is just that I use them for uses other than birdwatching as well. 7x or 8x binoculars work well in all types of terrain and in a wide variety of situations, forested areas to open fields. The images tend to be brighter with wider fields of view than higher powered binoculars. The wider field of view makes it easier to follow fast moving birds as well as scan for birds in the distance. With 10x or stronger binoculars you will get more detail which is good for spotting birds or prey, waterfowl, and large birds or wildlife, so good for open areas. You need a steady hand, especially when using the high-power compact which are so light that it takes very little hand tremor to affect your view and it is very important to stay away from cheap binoculars. So for the best value for money I would say most people should go for a good 8x pair of binoculars for bird watching (importance 7/10)

>Ease of Focusing

For birdwatching binoculars and any other pastime where your subject is fast moving this is vitally important, but often overlooked. What you are looking for is the speed at which you can focus the binoculars onto your bird. If you can't change focus quickly, you'll miss the bird. Binoculars with good focusing mechanisms will go from close focus to infinity in one full turn of the focus ring or less. Most binoculars use a linear focusing gear. If the gear ratio is slow (so more turning of the dial), they will focus easily on close range objects, but will be harder to focus on long range objects. If the gear ratio is fast (so less turning of the dial), they will be difficult to focus on close range objects as micro adjustments will be difficult but excel at long distance. Look out for a new innovation where binoculars have a variable speed focusing gears. These ensure that the focus is slower close in and faster farther out. Another consideration are auto focus binoculars, or probably more accurately described as focus free or always in focus binoculars where by once you have adjusted them to your eyesight, they will be permanently in focus from a given distance to infinity. If you want to learn more read my article on self focusing binoculars.
(importance 7/10)

>Field of view

The field of view is important in birding binoculars and is basically the width of the scene that is in view when you look through your binoculars, for a full explanation see field of view in my optics glossary. A wide field of view will make it easier to find birds when looking through the binoculars. On the down side is in loss of pinpoint detail that you find in high magnification binoculars. In simple terms lower magnification often means wider field of view. A field of view that is too wide will often result in distortion at the edges of the image. So what you are looking for is the wider field of view as possible in your chosen magnification. This is a good way of deciding between two birdwatching binoculars of the same magnification, take a look at which has a wider field of view. (importance 7/10)

>Weight of birding binoculars

This in some ways is more important than you would first imagine as there are a few things to consider and to get your own preference. A light and compact binocular will be easier to carry around with you all day, especially if you are going to be doing a lot of walking when you go bird spotting. On the down side, a heavier binocular will also resist moving, so it should be easier to hold steady, this is especially true if you are using larger magnification binoculars of 10x or more. The objective lens usually affects the weight and size of a pair of binoculars the most, so what I would do first is decide what size of binocular you want first (compact binoculars, mid size binoculars or full size binoculars) and then compare the weights and dimensions of the binoculars in this group to find what you are looking for, but to be honest the materials used in most good quality binoculars these days mean that once you have decided on the size of binoculars you want the weights between different models will not make that much difference. (importance of weight within a size of binocular 2/10)

>Size and exit pupil of binoculars for birdwatching

So what size of binocular to choose? Compact binoculars will be much easier to carry around than full size binoculars, yet they usually have a smaller exit pupil which means that they do not work as well in poorer light conditions, a consideration if you are going to be viewing forest birds, look out for an exit pupil of at the very least 2.5 preferably nearer 4. You can work out the exit pupil by dividing the objective lens size by the magnification or power of the binoculars so a set of 10x28 binoculars would have an exit pupil of 2.8mm. Exit pupils ranging from around 7mm (7x50, 8x56) to 2mm (10x21). (importance of size and exit pupil 7/10)

>Balance of Binoculars

This is quite important and unfortunately is not something you can compare without trying out the binoculars yourself, having said that if you are going for a quality pair of binoculars, all will be pretty well balanced and you will probably not go wrong here. Well balanced binoculars should put very little stress on your arms, wrists, and hands when you hold them up to your face. A badly balanced pair, will strain your muscles making viewing for long periods a task as well as making harder to keep steady. (importance 6/10)

>Eye Relief

This is very important if you use glasses. Take a look at Eye Relief in my glossary for a detailed explanation, but basically it is the distance behind the ocular lenses where the image is in focus. So if you wear glasses, you can't get your eyes as close to the lenses, you need a longer eye relief that basically projects the image beyond the ocular lens on the binoculars. So if you wear glasses, you should be looking for an eye relief of at least 15mm, to see the full image full image. The down side to long eye relief is that it usually reduces the field of view. Some people wonder if you need to wear glasses at all using binoculars, well If you are near-sighted or far-sighted, you can use your binoculars without wearing glasses and the binoculars focus will compensate, but if you have astigmatism, you will need to use your glasses.

Eye-cups are related to the eye relief as they keep the distance from the oculars to our eyes, but also help keep stray light away from your eyes while using binoculars. Many eye-cups are made from rubber and can roll up or down depending on whether you use lasses or not. The problem with these is that the constant rolling causes the eye-cups to break. Another type are eye-cups that slide rather than roll, but these can be hard to keep in place. The third type are eye-cups that twist up and down and so they can be left at any position from all the way up to all the way down, some even have click stops at regular intervals with the eye relief distance for each stop marked on the cup so you can get the perfect eye relief for your vision. (importance 8/10 if you uses glasses)

>Waterproof Binoculars

Most standard quality binoculars will be fine in light rain and humidity, so unless you plan on going out in bad weather I would not worry too much. Water-resistant binoculars may be a good choice as they will handle the occasional splashes, but don't drop them in the pool! (importance 2/10)

Below are some binoculars that I recommend as great bird spotting binoculars.

View >> All Binoculars for Birdwatching