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Birdwatching Binoculars, Characteristics to Look for When Considering Birdwatching Binoculars.

Birdwatching Binoculars

It doesn’t occur to a number of people that birdwatching binoculars should

be different from, say, hunting or astronomy binoculars. When you really

think about it the needs in terms of the optics are not at all the same.

Bird watching binoculars need to be lightweight, tough, rugged, and very

portable.

Binoculars for bird watching need to take into account the size, movement

and distance of the bird. For example, on birdwatching tours you might

want to magnify a bird who is sitting in a tree right by you. Then there

might be one which is flying in the sky a considerable distance away. Any

decent birdwatching guide should be able to advise you on what to look for

in birding binoculars, including magnification and field of view.

You might be wondering first of all, which are the best brands? Bushnell

binoculars are excellent, of course, and Leupold, Simmons, Pentax, Leica,

Tasko and Nikon are also respected names in the field of telescopes and

optical equipment. It is essential that the binoculars lens has the right

magnification for the subject: the level of zoom is vital, along with the

field of view.

You might think that your binoculars’ magnification should be absolutely the

maximum you can get: the problem with this is that the higher the

magnification, the harder they are to hold still and get a good view of the

bird. High magnification pairs tend to be more expensive, larger, and

heavier, and it is very important when birdwatching that you keep your pair

of binoculars compact. You’d better believe it, it doesn’t matter where

you’re wearing them. You might have them around your neck or in a fanny

pack or whatever. Heavy ones will really weigh you down after walking

around with them for over half an hour or so! And, even more importantly,

lets imagine you’ve spotted that fantastic Golden Eagle soaring over the

skies. How frustrating would it be if you couldn’t hold those birdwatching

binoculars steady enough to see the bird close-up anyway!

Therefore it is best that your birdwatching binoculars have a magnification

of about 8x maximum. If you need more than that then your wildlife

binoculars may be of little use. You are now entering the realm of

telescopes with tripods, which are okay if you are going to set yourself up

in a hide or a static place. They’re less fun if you want to move around a

lot.

Another factor is the weather. Birders tend to be out in all weather and

terrain, so waterproof binoculars are essential. Even if you leave base in

sunshine, the threat of rain can be ever-present at some times of year and

places. Even if the weather looks fine, you don’t want to be constantly

anxious about your birdwatching binoculars getting wet.

It’s always best to consult a specialist website or expert on the subject of

birdwatching binoculars before you commit yourself to buying anything.

They should be able to point you in the right direction and enable you to

understand the terminology.

 

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