[Dale2000]

I thought I'd see if those on this forum, have a favourite 'birding' lens? Often, it depends on the distance away from you, and I do have an assortment of lenses...out to 600mm, but for the best quality one usually has to keep the distance to a minimum! Thankfully cameras available today can do a great job in calibrating auto focus, once you have all your settings as needed, and I prefer using a tripod as well now that I'm getting older. I'm thinking my 70-200mm F/2.8 would be a good compromise, as I do have a 2X teleconverter if needed as well if there is plenty of light.

Thanks for any advice/suggestions in advance.

[Jdunster]

If you use Nikon, the 200-500 is pretty good. I use it on a D500 body and on a tripod get acceptable images. See today's hawk posting which was shot with this setup on a tripod + cable release.

[zwest]

Yeah, if you’re always using a tripod, the 200-500 is a good choice. For handheld, 300 f4 with teleconverters (just not the 2x) works well.