One of the advantages of today’s long zoom Point & Shoot cameras is their relative speed and ease of use, when compared to either a digiscoping rig, or a conventional DSLR long lens combo. The Canon SX40HS I use is tiny compared to either, and rides securely in the passenger seat while driving loops at places like Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Bosque del Apache, or even Viera Wetlands (a municipal wetlands…settlement ponds…designed for birding). It is up and in my hand and pointed out the window of the car quicker than I can write this sentence.
And, with the useful digital tel-extender function putting you out at 1240-1680mm equivalent fields of view, you have the reach to capture many birds without getting out of the car.
That is the only way (in my experience) to catch at Kingfisher at any reasonable distance at Merritt Island. Kingfishers on Black Point Wildlife Drive are skittish to say the least. Only once have I ever successfully gotten out of the car to set up my digiscoping rig before the bird was off down the channel, or up over the mangroves and out of site.
This bird was perched on the far side of the water channel next to the road just beyond the eagle nest station. I pulled up beside it, rolled down the window on the passenger side (thank you for electric windows!) got the Canon SX40HS up and got off a burst of 6 shots before she took flight. The light was amazing. The distance was reasonable. I could not have done it with either a digiscoping rig or a long lens (unless I had the long lens mounted on a window mount and ready to go).
This is another out-the-window shot, this time on the driver’s side. The bird was right below the car, at the edge of pond, up against the dyke. As you see if you look closely I was shooting down through grasses, reeds, and even a small mangrove bush. The bird was feeding actively, never still. It got so close I backed off on the 1240mm equivalent full optical zoom and 1.5x digital tel-extender would have given me to shoot at about 1000mm equivalent.
This Great Egret was at the foot of the dyke at Viera Wetlands on the driver’s side. Again, I pulled up, pointed the Canon SX40HS at full optical (840mm equivalent), and shot point blank. It does not get any better than that.
Same drill on these White Ibis (2nd shot is an immature) a bit further around the loop.
Finally here is a comparison shot of the view out the passenger window at Merritt Island. The first is at 42mm equivalent, so it is about what the naked eye would see. The second is at 230mm equivalent. They were taken within seconds of each other. Not possible with any other kind of camera. Superzooms rule!
At least they rule the window shot.
You don’t buy a lens to look at birds. You buy a lens to take pictures of birds. That is what was made for. You carry it in the field while photographing birds. That involves a whole set of skills, mostly centered on getting close enough to the bird to fill the frame. If you want to also look at birds, you carry binoculars and use them when you get close enough (because you certainly are NOT carrying both a spotting scope and a long lens, and you are not getting very satisfying looks at birds through your long lens). With experience and skill your images of birds will be beyond satisfying…they will be stunningly detailed studies of the living creature. That’s bird photography. The Kinglet here is a good example from master wildlife photographer, 
There are three reasons a photographer might buy a spotting scope and small camera instead of a lens. To even consider digiscoping the photographer has to be willing to accept the level of image quality possible with a camera working behind a scope. Working from a distance, digiscoped image quality will be as good as and sometimes considerably better than a long lens working much beyond frame filling distance (arguably, but that is my experience), but it will never equal the quality of a frame filling bird taken at 12 feet with 600mm lens, or even at 24 feet with a 2X extender. Still, the three reasons a photographer might consider digiscoping: 1) to work from greater distances than a long lens allows, 2) to limit the weight and bulk of the equipment carried (a scope and camera is always going to be lighter and easier to carry than a long lens), and 3) to control expense (even the best digiscoping rig will cost half what a 600mm IS lens does).
But with that comes lots of birders. And photographers. Hence the “some ways” above. The past two years the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Ottawa NWR, and Tropical Birding Tours, have organized an event around the phenomenon of Magee Marsh and migration. The boardwalk is often so jammed with binocular and camera wielding humanity that it is literally impossible to move. Little old ladies (and big strong men) get stranded for hours a few yards short of where everyone else is seeing the Connecticut. Even when the press is less, it is not uncommon to find 200 birders and photographers in 100 yards of boardwalk. And tripods supporting 600mm lenses? Don’t get me started on that! While I understand the impulse to drag a 6 foot tall tripod, 14 pounds and 24 inches of lens, and a foot long flash hood out on to a boardwalk with hundreds of birders trying to see warblers (and all the little folk with their 300mm zooms), I can not say that I fully approve. Nothing stops traffic like a tripod blocking half the boardwalk.
