I just got into birding more seriously in the last year, and I absolutely second this. I got a decent pair of binoculars that I keep around the house and on sho

I just got into birding more seriously in the last year, and I absolutely second this. I got a decent pair of binoculars that I keep around the house and on short walks [0], and a smaller pair of travel binoculars [1] that go pretty much everywhere, including my suitcase on trips. Every trip is a birdwatching trip now! It's so much fun to look for birds when you travel, because you're almost certainly going to see some that you've never seen before. I did learn to stop spending so much time trying to identify each individual bird. It can be hard to positively identify closely-related species. For example, there are several species of woodpeckers where I live, and I used to try to identify one when I saw it. Then I just stopped thinking about that and started to really enjoy watching them when I see them. It's much more enjoyable, it's less rushed, and I'll get better at identifying them as I see them more often. If you've never looked through some decent binoculars, it will amaze you. I did a lot of reading about binoculars before buying a pair. I had always heard things like 8x25, 8x42, etc. I went into it thinking bigger numbers are better, but of course that's not always true. The first number is magnification. I went with 8x, because higher magnifications can make the image too shaky unless you're using a tripod or leaning the binoculars against something. That magnification can also over-fill the viewing field, I believe. The second number is the size of the objective lens. Larger numbers mean brighter images, but they also mean bigger binoculars. As with many things, spending a few hundred dollars will get you a much nicer pair of binoculars than spending $50, but you won't get a whole lot more quality if you spend $1000. REI has a great, simple guide for choosing a pair. [2] [0] https://www.rei.com/product/744595/nikon-trailblazer-atb-waterproof-8-x-25-binoculars https://www.rei.com/product/744595/nikon-trailblazer-atb-wat... [1] https://www.rei.com/product/853970/nikon-monarch-5-8-x-42-waterproof-binoculars https://www.rei.com/product/853970/nikon-monarch-5-8-x-42-wa... [2] https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/binoculars.html https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/binoculars.html