Birding by Camera

Male Barrow's goldeneye.

When I started birding it was uncommon to see a birder with a telephoto lens/camera. In those days cameras and lenses were expensive, and digital photography did not exist, so taking a photo meant lugging your camera into the field, trying to estimate the proper settings as things like autofocus, automatic light metering, etc did not exist, taking the photo then waiting for it to be developed to see if it came out OK.
Now digital SLR cameras, long lenses and the ability to take acceptably good photos with very little expertise in photography make using a camera as a tool in field birding not just practical, but increasingly popular. It has come to a point where especially in young birders they may not even bring binoculars into the field, but rather use their camera as their optical magnification tool to see birds in life, and the photos they take as the definitive way to get a "close look" using telephoto lenses and cropping of the photo to get close detailed looks.
In my opinion using binoculars and a spotting scope gives a better birding experience, but for the last couple of days on my exercise/birding walk on the Ruston Way waterfront on Commencement Bay in Tacoma, WA I've left my binos at home, brought my Nikon D-7200 camera and Nikon 200-500 telephoto zoom lens and gone out to see what it's like to bird by camera.
Keep in mind that I'm relatively inexperienced at quickly getting onto moving birds with the camera, but I find the camera is more acceptable at looking at birds out in the open than birds in thick cover. I also find that it is just more enjoyable to watch a bird through pure optics than to look through a camera long lens. That said, it is fun to try to get a photo of many more birds than I'd usually try to capture. Here are a few of the photos I took on this afternoon's walk.

Male and female Barrow's goldeneye