I suppose you want to hear about which bird binoculars I like best. Lots of people have their own preferences, and so do I.  So I will tell you a little about my wish list. My bird binoculars wish list includes Swarovski 10X42 but they are too expensive for me right now. About half the price would get me a good set of Vortex 10×42 Vipers and that would be almost as much of a treat for me.

Since I prefer compacts I would be delighted with Leica Ultravid 10×25 compact bird binoculars if someone wanted to give them to me. I am kind of frugal and would not buy them if I did not have a really good reason to, like maybe a safari trip! That is when I would really want to take along more than one set of bird binoculars and if possible my spotting scope and tripod.

So what is my birding guides preference? It depends. If I am in a brand new location, I will reach for my old trusty Golden Guide Birds of North America by Robbins and Zim and others. I know there are lots of more recent birding guides around, I just like their format and their revised version is just a bit better than the first. Actually for birding guides, I like Peterson field guides because that is what I learned with even though the photography in the National Audubon Society birding guides is really great. I have never used Kaufmann’s birding guides yet.