Getting Started in Birdwatching: Choosing Binoculars

Wander the aisles at your local REI or L.L. Bean Outlet, and the sobering reality will set in: outdoor hobbies can be expensive. The entry-level gear for a stint at rock climbing or kayaking is no small investment, and the more committed you get, the higher the price tag goes. My brother, for one, has a mountain bike that’s worth more than my car. And even when we’ve already purchased everything we reasonably need, a discontent heart is always pondering gear upgrades: this new tent would be nice, this sleeping bag would be more comfy, this cooler would be cooler than my cooler. My local REI is my favorite store, but I usually walk out empty-handed (or with something affordable, like a water bottle. I have lots of water bottles).

By comparison, birdwatching is a cheap hobby. True, you might be a destination birder, booking your next flight to an exotic eco-lodge with professional guide services and evening wine tastings. Those priceless experiences can be pricey. But for the typical local birder, you don’t have to invest much: just some binoculars, really.

It’s easy to forget that binoculars are a relatively new invention; humanity first needed to invent things like the telescope (Netherlands, 1608), image-erecting prisms (Italy, 1854), and other discoveries and improvements that finally made modern binoculars possible around 1894. That means (and it’s a fact we’re not proud of) that for a birder in the 1700’s your most important piece of equipment was a shotgun. The famed 1700’s ornithologist Mark Catesby often described the abundance of a species by nonchalantly recording how easy it was to shoot large numbers of them in a given period of time. Granted, it’s shocking to our modern sensibilities, but without field binoculars, this is how we got our specimens, and how artists like John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson got their subjects to hold still for their paintings. Audubon’s amazing Birds of America prints conveniently omit the bullet holes.

Today “birding” and “game birding” are thankfully two different pastimes, and to identify a bird you don’t need to knock it out of the tree first. Binoculars (and eventually cameras) have created a kinder, gentler pastime. In addition, they’re what makes birdwatching a far more financially accessible hobby than, say, Himalayan mountaineering or hot-air balloon racing. A pair of bins (as the Aussies call them) is the only major purchase required to break into birdwatching, and you can enter in at pretty much any price point. I polled some fellow birders for their recommendations on choosing binoculars, and so if you’re in the market, here are a few solid recommendations, all in the 8x42 or 10x42 variety.[1]

Value: Vortex Crossfire 8x42 HD (~$139)

Inexpensive: Nikon Monarch M5 8x42 or 10x42 (~$285)

Mid-range: Vortex Viper HD 8x42 (~$500), Nikon Monarch M7 8x42 (~$490)

Mid-Upper: Maven B1 8x42 (~$950)

Upper End: Swarovski EL 8.5x42 (~$2000)

If you want a better understanding of the advantages of higher-end models, this video is helpful. The advice from fellow birders, simply put, is this: buy the best you can afford, and you’ll probably never need another pair.

When you know you’ll be birding from a distance, like a lake or wetland, or that Amazon warehouse retention pond that the pesky security guards won’t let you visit except from the sidewalk (hypothetical example, of course), a spotting scope is also very helpful. It allows you to zoom in far closer while stabilizing the image on a tripod stand. It’s harder to find a bargain in scopes, but the cheap ones will frustrate your I.D. efforts with blurry optics, so it’s not wise to skimp on this item. If you’re in the market, here are three recommendations — tripod sold separately.

Value: Celestron Regal M2 65ED (~$550)

Mid-Range: Vortex Razor HD 20-60x85 (~$750)

Upper-End: Maven S.1A 25-50x80 (~$2200)

So set aside that shotgun, and grab some decent optics. The birds will thank you.

THE ORNITHEOLOGY PERSPECTIVE

The key to birdwatching is, well, watching. To do that, our naked eyes need help to see — a power that will magnify. Without this power, we're going to miss an awful lot, looking but never truly seeing.

By analogy, it’s the Lord’s illumining that gives us the capacity to see. This isn’t about birds, but the deeper things we truly need, that we can’t possibly see without him: Godly understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6), true counter-cultural wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:21-24), weighty spiritual realities (Ephesians 6:12), and above all, the realization of who this Jesus of Nazareth truly is (Matthew 16:17). When Peter confessed Christ as Lord, Jesus told him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” God had granted Peter a divine set of optics.

With that in mind, maybe this Celtic 8th-century prayer can remind us, the next time we pull out our binoculars, that we are helpless without his empowering vision.

Be thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart.

Naught be all else to me save that Thou art.

Thou my best thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

[1] In describing binoculars, the first number refers to the magnification, and the second is the diameter of your objective (outer) lens (that lets light in). Birders swear by the 8x42 bins, with 10x42’s as the second most popular. Larger magnifications and lens widths might seem better, but they’re also heavier, which results in a bit more shakiness. Smaller-diameter binoculars (like travel or “opera” glasses) are great for concerts and sporting events, but they don’t let in enough light to make good birdwatching optics. The majority of birders will tell you that 8x42 or 10x42 are the most versatile all-round configurations.