In bird-watching circles, the choice is almost always between 8-power and 10-power binoculars. 10-power give you a more detailed view of the birds but at the cost of being somewhat harder to be stable with. After that is the diameter of the exit lens. The bigger the number, the more light it can bring in and the wider the view. Again, among bird-watching circles, the choice seems to be 42mm or 50mm with 42mm being more popular.
Once you have chosen the "power" and the "angle", it really comes down to the quality of the lenses (and perhaps the design of the prisms within the binoculars). Unfortunately, there is no magic number that describes lens quality. Somebody mentioned Nikon 8 x 42 binoculars. Nikon makes at least six different series of binoculars (Trailblazer, Monarch, Monarch HG, Prostaff, Travelite and Aculon) and sometimes has multiple models within the series (such as the Monarch 3, Monarch 5 & Monarch 7). Which is right for you (assuming you want to go Nikon)? The only way to really tell is to try them out yourself. You may be able to briefly borrow some from birdwatchers during birdwalks or you may got to an outdoor sporting goods store (Cabella, REI, etc.) and try them out in the store.
Lastly, you really need to consider your budget. You can find binoculars for under $50 and you can find them costing several thousand dollars. What are good optics worth to you? How much pleasure will you get out of what you are seeing and watching? I know birders who have Swarovski or similar binoculars worth around $3,000 a pair who justify it by having birdwatching as their primary hobby. That's cheaper than buying cars as a hobby and perhaps cheaper than higher-end golf clubs!
Be aware that the relationship between cost and quality isn't a flat line. That is, $1,000 binoculars are not twice as good as $500 binoculars. As you get into better and better binoculars, you will pay more and more for smaller and smaller improvements. My wife and I have gone through several pairs of binoculars over the years, starting from some that cost around $50 40 years ago to recently upgrading our Nikon Monarch 5s (costing around $500/pair) to Vortex Razor HDs (around $1,000) and Razor UHDs (around $1500). They are worth it to us. To somebody else no as much into birdwatching? Maybe not so much. And to somebody else really into birdwatching? They may not be good enough. It's all relative.
|