Birding equipment

Birding requires some investment for equipment. The major cost is for a good pair of binoculars. Binos come from around Rs.3000 to over a lakh or more. Reasonable binos can be bought by amateur birders for about Rs.3500 to Rs.5000. This is the most expensive item in a birders kit.
A field guide is a must, for quick reference in the field. A good guide can be bought in most major bookshops, for about Rs.500 or less.
This is all what is absolutely required for starting bird watching.
Other small things can help: backpack, water bottle (for long days in the field), a logbook (to note down your observations), good (trekking) shoes.
If you have lots of money, you can buy: spotting scopes (a valueable instrument for viewing distant birds), birders jacket (with pockets for most of your stuff).

Bird photography is different from bird watching, although several birders also take photos. Photo equipment requires a good SLR camera and several lenses.

My equipment is quite modest, but it is quite sufficient:
1) Bushnell Trophy 10x42 roof prism binos (approx Rs.7000)
2) "The Book of Indian Birds" by Salim Ali (field guide) (approx Rs 500)

Equipment is a long term investment...your binos, if used carefully, should last a decade or two.

Buying binos is difficult in India (at least in Madras.) Most of the camera shops have one or two binos for namesake and you may not get the model you want. I got mine through a friend in Singapore. I bought these Bushnells after extensive research on the Internet. Bushnells are 'value for money' binos...nowhere near the top class brands, like Zeiss, Swaroski and Steiner. But they are quite good for an amateur birder like me.

A disadvantage in buying through someone else is that you cant try out the binos. They may be too heavy for you, or you might not find them handy. Anyway, try to see the model in person. Keep reading reviews on the internet (the birding sites have specific sections for equipment.)

Wish: If I had lots of money, then I would buy a Steiner Peregrine 10x42 bino!!

Peregrine falcoln

This blog is named after the Peregrine falcon, one of my favourite birds. Raptors, in general, are my liking (so are wetland birds.) Wikipedia quotes the perengrine falcoln "the fastest creature on the planet", reaching speeds in excess of 300 kmph.

This is my newly created birding blog. Birding is an activity I enjoy immensly. I have just started birding, and I am hooked. I hope to share on this page my experiences with birding and hopefully I will find time and energy to update this.

And this is also an invitation for other fellow birders to contact me.

I do not know how popular bird watching is in India. It is a sort of refined hobby, and it does require some investment (binos, for example) and ready access to information (the internet.) So it is not popular...I say this, because other than the people who intoduced me to birding, I have not met any other birder (so far.)

More about me is in my homepage/profile pages.

I should, at this point say that I have been introduced to this fascinating hobby by Dr.Susy Varughese, a faculty member in the department of Chemical engineering at IIT Madras. I shall always be grateful to her, and Prakriti (IIT Madras Wildlife Club) for having instilled in me the love for Nature and birds in particular.

India is a fascinating country, with a rich and varied wildlife (although an alarming portion of it is dwindling.) Let us try our best to help conserve it (although I am having the feeling that it is a losing battle.)

I hope to give my trip reports, bird findings, and other routine stuff here.

I am also the member of two discussion forums, www.birding.in and www.birdforum.net.

Hope to have a good time in this blog!!