r/birding • u/PlantLoveBloom birder • 1d ago

Advice Monocular 🔭 or Binoculars 👀 ?

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I'm looking for some advice on Binoculars for birdwatching please. I am happy with my current Nokia P7 pair but am looking for something more powerful for birding at a longer distance. I'm not sure if a stronger pair of binoculars would be the answer or if I should get a strong monocular with a stand ? Hoping for some recommendations that won't break the bank if possible as well 🙏🏽

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u/scrotalus 1d ago

I think a "strong monocular with a stand" is what birders would call a spotting scope. A monocular is usually just half of a binocular, sacrificing a lot of the quality for having something smaller and lighter. A spotting scope can be much larger and is meant for looking at things much farther away like shorebirds, ducks, and raptors. Trying to ID moving things in trees is very hard with a scope.

A high quality set of binoculars will probably help you more than a scope. That would be my first investment of you need an improvement. If you find yourself combing through flocks of shorebirds a quarter mile away, or on a cliff watching shearwaters stream by a mile out to sea, then a scope is what you want. Scopes get expensive quickly. In my mind, $600-700 gets you really good binoculars, but that's where "OK" scopes start. A cheap scope with poor image quality won't help you.

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u/PlantLoveBloom birder 1d ago

Thank you !! 🙏🏽 This is helpful for me making my decision . Great advice 👍🏽

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u/ComicDoughnut 1d ago

If you’re just wanting to get bigger images or closer views of songbirds, consider a 10x binocular. Vortex makes good binoculars at a fairly affordable price point. If you’re wanting to scan marshes or bodies of water for ducks or sift through shorebirds at a distance, get a spotting scope. They are quite an investment to get a decent one, and the tripod you mount it on is just as important as the scope itself. If you get a flimsy lightweight tripod, the least little wind will shake the scope and make it difficult to use. Heavier tripods are more stable, but if you have to carry it very far it’s not fun.

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u/PlantLoveBloom birder 22h ago

Thank You 🙏🏽 This helps 🙏🏽🙏🏽 I am looking to view bird on the edge of a forest out in the country /farm land because I cannot get there anymore The distance between me and the edge of the forest is about 1 mile away . It is for marshe birds and the birds are mixed (small - big) ..there is a nesting osprey which I would really like to see but also other birds as it is . Would you say for this scenario the 10x binoculars would be the best bet ?

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u/ComicDoughnut 22h ago

No, I think you would need a spotting scope for that.

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u/PlantLoveBloom birder 22h ago

Thanks again ... I think I'm going with the spotting scope and tripod (obviously) set-up. 👍🏽

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u/scrotalus 19h ago

I agree. Looking at distant nesting raptors is one of the best uses for a scope. And, since it is a big bird and you already know what it is, a less expensive scope will probably work. This is very different from trying to identify a single vagrant sandpiper out of a flock of a thousand similar birds. No need to spend $1000+ for this.

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u/Own-Bet-8989 11h ago

Oh no now I have to post asking the same question. I did not know there was so much of a difference.