Finding Binoculars for Bird Watching

Binoculars for bird watching are like a cone for ice cream – they are essential for each other. Bird watchers often have more than one pair of binoculars for bird watching so that they can pull out just the right one to go with a given situation. In order to identify the different species of birds, the bird watcher must be able to see the identifying marks on the bird so that the bird guide that he will often bring with him to identify unknown species of birds can be consulted and the bird identified. The only way to do this is to have binoculars for bird watching with him to help to magnify the bird so that it feels like it is right in front of him.

What to Look for

Bird Binoculars have a series of numbers on them which are separated by an 'x.' These numbers tell the user a couple of pieces of information. The first number stands for the number of times the object viewed through the binoculars is magnified to the eyes. In other words, a pair of binoculars for bird watching that are trained on a bird that looks like it is an inch tall to the naked eye is magnified to ten inches tall by a pair of binoculars with a magnification of ten. In this way the bird watcher is able to see the various markings on the bird for identification. A typical designation, and common power for bird watching, for these binoculars would be 10 x 42 binoculars

The second number is just as important for the bird watcher. It tells how large the opening of the front lens of the pair of binoculars is in millimeters. The size of the front lens is important in choosing binoculars for bird watching because it is the lens that lets light into the binoculars so that the image that is seen is bright and clear. If the lens is not very large, the image may be magnified but the features of the bird, especially the coloring is obscured by the lack of lighting from the front lens.

There are many different binoculars for bird watching on the market that will do an adequate job for the bird watcher without costing a considerable amount of money. The Nikon brand of binoculars comes in all ranges of quality and pricing, from top of the line down to a value type of binocular for beginners. Another brand that comes top of the line is the Bausch & Lomb brand, which usually costs over five hundred dollars. A couple of brands that are value binoculars other than the value version of the Nikon are the Bushnell brand and the Celestron brand of bird watching binoculars.