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What To Look For
There are two ways you can go, a digital camera or binoculars with a digital camera built-in. If you are a shutterbug and a bird lover, go with a high-end digital camera. If you are a birder first and photographer third or fourth, get the binoculars-camera combination. Digital camera-binoculars are also often the cheaper choice, making them good if you are on a tight budget. Regardless of your choice, you want as high a megapixel count as possible to take sharp images. Also keep in mind the standard focal length for a birding camera is 90 mm.
Common Pitfalls
The usual mistake is to be conservative and not go all the way on a camera of this type. While you can balance cost and quality, you need a camera that can quickly acquire fast-moving, small objects from considerable distance, focus on them, and take a high-quality picture. Under those circumstances, fractions of a second count. If you do not buy a birding digital camera like that, you have wasted your money.
Where To Buy
Given the demands of acquiring and getting a picture of birds, especially when they are in flight, it pays to go to the store to try out your bird-watching digital camera or digital camera-binoculars. Even a photographic expert doesn't really know how easy a camera is to handle in the field until he has given it a try in person.
Cost
The Canon EOS series has different versions that were priced around $1,800 in 2009. The Nikon D50 was somewhat less expensive at $1,300, while Fuji and Konica have cameras suitable for birders in the $500 range. Bushnell and Celestron had digital camera-binoculars that were $100 to $200.
Accessories
Given that you will be taking very high-density photographs, you should invest in the biggest storage disk so you can complement your high megapixel count.
