The Best Birding Binoculars & Where to Find Them

The best birding binoculars are those which allow you to be a great birder! So what sort of optical demands might that include? Well for starters you need to see details like the patterns in feathers not just the colors. You need to see birds in dimmed light such as under a tree canopy or in the early dawn light. You need good magnification with optical clarity such that you can easily identify birds a hundred meters or more away. Occasionally you'll use them at short distances so you'll want a close focus ability too. You want true color throughput so you see everything as it really is and not with some tint or aberration. You also need a reasonable field of view so you can see birds in flight easily as well be able as pick them out from their surroundings.

Personal All Time Favourites:

Swarovski EL Binocular 8.5x42 $2,598.89

Nikon 7295 Monarch 10x42mm III $299.95

Steiner 8x42 Merlin Binocular $468.99

You want the binoculars to be light enough to carry and hang on a neckstrap for long periods. They should be light enough to hold up for viewing and easy enough on the eyes to be able to use comfortably. Ideally they should be compact enough to pack in a rucksack or its outside pockets easily. If you use a hide then it might also be an advantage to be able to use your binoculars with a tripod. If your birding is in the wilderness you'll want rugged construction and maybe even some waterproofing and fogproofing.

When you see a binocular described as "8x 40" or similar, those numbers tell us a lot about what we can expect from it. The first number (the 'x' factor) tells us how much the image is magnified, an 8x binocular magnifies an image (brings it closer) by 8 times so an object 80 meters away will appear to the eye as if it was 10 meters away. The higher the magnification factor used, the greater you will notice the handshake effect and the smaller the field of view. For birding use an 8x binocular is most commonly used.

The second number tells us the diameter of the objective lens. This is important for two reasons, the larger the diameter the more light is captured and thus the clearer and brighter the image. Secondly, the larger the diameter the greater the field of view, or to think of it in reverse, the less tunnel vision effect! Bear in mind that the larger the diameter the heavier the binoculars will be too. For birding use, the most popular objectives are 40mm or 42mm.

Exit Pupil refers to the diameter of the shaft of light emanating from the eyepiece, without going into too much detail you'll typically want 5mm or a little more for birdwatching, such as found in 8x 40 type binoculars.

Other characteristics are the quality of the lenses and prisms and the coatings used on them. These coatings help prevent light from being reflected back out of the binocular and so help to promote clarity and color. Generally speaking look for FMC or Fully Multi Coated binoculars for birding use.

Eye Relief refers to the distance from the eyepiece to your eye at which the image is comfortably viewed. If you wear eyeglasses, you will want a longer eye relief above say 14mm to allow for the extra distance from the eyepiece to your eye.

Roof and Porro Prism can be thought of as the two basic body styles of binoculars. Due to the placement of the internal prisms, the roof prism designs are the sleeker more compact versions with the objective lenses being in line with the eyepieces, while porro prism types are the traditional heavier style with the lenses stepped out from the line of the eyepieces. Birders are more and more opting for the roof prism design, indeed several binocular manufacturers are phasing out production of the porro type.