Er..... dare I mention another new camera with 4MP and 12X zoom + image stabiliser? Oh go on then, I hear you say....
The new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10. It's very new, but if it does what it purports, then this could be a winner for birders! Steve's Digicams already has a review for it, although bird photography is a bit different to the usual sample shots he shows on his site, so it's difficult to tell how good it really is.
I believe this camera has recently been released in England. I've had mine for a few months. It is an amazing camera. The stablilizer lets you take pictures that would be impossible otherwise, no tripod. You can also add lens to it that will increase the range of the camera. You can see thousands of examples of photos this camera on PBase,
http://www.pbase.com/cameras/panasonic/dmc_fz10. There is a less expensive version, a 2mg.camera with the same stabilized zoom, the FZ-1 and FZ-2 that takes excellent pictures as well. I visited my parents in Florida last month and the area they live in is protected from dogs and cats and the birds were abundant. I was able to literally walk right up to a Sandhill Crane and actually had to move away from the bird to get the animal full frame in my lens. Other birds were much more shy but I could still get quite close with the 420 mm range of the lens.