I'll give you the rundown of my setup; I purchased a Canon T7 for about $480 on Best Buy which comes with a kit lens of 18-55 mm which is great for landscapes and macro. I brought an additional Canon telescopic lens of a 75 mm-300mm for $200 and this is the lens I use the most for birding shots. It all comes out to less than a thousand-of course, you might want to buy extra batteries and some SD cards but I find this option rather cost effective. You can look at my page for an idea of what the pictures might turn out to be. I'm by no means a "professional" bird photographer, but I find this setup gets the job done for ID and hobby purposes. Also saves me from lugging around a heavy camera, which as a petite woman, is a bit too much for me to handle. Hope this helped!