Contrary to the popular belief that you need very very long lenses [like 400mm 500mm 600mm ...] to do bird photography I have managed to get descent shots of birds [even the really smaller ones] with my 70-300 mm f4-5.6 nikkor zoom ! One is in front of you. Well, let me confess that I use a pretty sturdy tripod with ball head, but I know people [only a handful though] using very basic no ball head tripods and getting excellent results. I am not telling long lenses are not required at all, they are very helpful in getting clearer better results but if one is not getting descent output from these cheap consumer zoom lenses then its of no use going for bigger lenses.
[Above : Red Vented Bulbul - Shot in a village near Calcutta]
[Below: Red Wishkered Bulbul - Shot at Bannerghatta National Park, 15kms from Bangalore ]
