Mark Lew1s
My real name is Mark Lewis
he he he - I am so rubbish at shopping!
After reading more reviews, watching some videos and listening to sample recordings I decided that the h4n was the one for me. I then saw a used Tascam dr-100mkII on eBay and bid on that, but didn't win it. Started to feel that the Zoom was more than I would need to perhaps the much cheaper Tascam dr-05 was the way to go instead. Lots more reading done and yet more audio samples listened too and I was more confused that ever. The Tascam will clearly do what I am initially wanting it to do, however the Zoom is a bit more future proof (I don't think I will need anymore than it offers in the foreseeable future) and will be good when my kids want performances recording... now to reconvene myself that it is worth the extra money. Once I've done that I need to order it quick before I get distracted and confused again (made the mistake of also looking at the Zoom H5 and the Tascam dr-40 too).
If you don't buy one, you'll never record anything ;-)
To me, you're overthinking this. You may well be able to hear the difference between the different recorders - but you'll only ever know about that if you buy them all. The spec of the recorder is actually a pretty small part of the overall equation, in terms of getting decent recordings. The proximity and volume of the bird, the amount of wind, the amount of background noise, the type of mic, and the time you spend learning how to clean up recordings in Audacity are all more important than buying the right recorder. I do a lot of recording next to a sewage works - and the best recorder in the world is still going to pick up the hum of the machinery, the vehicles coming and going, the wind rustling through the leaves, people yelling at their dogs etc etc.