Best Bird Watching Binoculars - Tips for Choosing Yours

By Liz Canham

There are so many types of binoculars on the market that it's quite hard to choose the best bird watching binoculars so I've compiled some tips to help you start selecting the most suitable for your needs.

Magnification

You will see numbers such as 7 x 35 or 10 x 50 and the first of these designates the magnification. For example 7 x means that an object will appear to be 7 times nearer than it would if you were not using binoculars so a bird 70 feet away from you will seem to be only 10 feet away when you use these binoculars.

The best binoculars for bird watching are 7 x or 8 x because you will get a wider field of view than with higher magnification binoculars. You will also get more light which is an advantage if you want to watch birds in poor light.

More disadvantages of high magnification binoculars are that they are heavier, they will need to be held more steadily (or you'll need a tripod) and they are harder to focus, particularly on close up birds.

However, you may prefer higher magnification binoculars for bird watching if you intend to watch birds such as raptors which are usually further away or if you want to watch largely inactive birds such as water fowl.

If you're after more than 10 x then bird spotting scopes will be of more use to you as you won't be able to hold binoculars of that magnification steady enough to see anything.

Objective Lens

Taking our 7 x 35 example, the second number indicates the diameter in millimetres of the objective lens. This is significant because the objective lens is where the light comes in so the wider the lens, the more light you get and the clearer your bird will be.

The only problem with this is that the wider your lens, the bulkier and heavier your binoculars and this is a major consideration if you'll be mobile while bird watching.

The best bird watching binoculars are typically 8 x 40 or 8 x 42 which give the best of all worlds in terms of weight, field of view and brightness. A 30mm objective lens is about as small as will be of use to a birder.

That's just a start to the selection process of your binoculars for bird watching but we haven't fully considered the balance, the exit pupil or the prism design.

To read more about selecting the best bird watching binoculars, visit Liz Canham's website, Worldwide Bird Watching where you'll find additional help.