Spotting scope or thermal scope for hearing impaired? (1 Viewer)

[kitcherjohn]

I wear hearing aids and cant locate birds through sound.

I went birding with some pals to a lake recently and had a great time using their scopes (a first for me - i usually just use binoculars and take photos with my camera). I now really really want to buy a spotting scope but i'm thinking that a thermal scope might be a better option given my inability to locate birds by sound. I live on a mountain so i wouldn't get many opportunities to use a scope anyway. Thoughts?

 

[tenex]

Welcome to Birdforum. Thermal is monochrome and has quite low magnification, around 2-3x (anything further is "digital zoom" with no additional resolution). You'd still need a bin or scope (depending on distance) to get a good view of any birds it finds. It carries easily; a scope requires a tripod. Birds at scope range are seldom located by sound. So really these are two rather different issues.

You can read more about thermal birding here:

Night Vision

www.birdforum.net

 

[wllmspd]

Locating by sound is usually to ID things hidden in bushes, which thermal can’t help much with. If you did find something it probably would have moved if/when you’d got another optic on it for a better view. A scope would help for all those (probably
Many more) times things are a long way off. I hear many birds in scrub, but rarely manage to ever find them, I use a bird song ID app to help me.

Peter