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Firstly there is a difference between bird watching a bird photography. As you are posting your question on Juza I will assume you mean bird photography. There are many things to consider when looking at gear for bird photography but the first is always budget. For more limited budgets you would be looking at a DX(crop) Camera body and a lens of no less than 400mm. DX camera bodies are usually cheaper than full frame camera bodies and seemingly multiple the focal length of your lens by a factor of around 1x4. In reality it pre crops the subject you see in your view finder to make the subject look closer that you would with an FX(full frame). There are a number of companies that build DSLR camera's suitable for bird photography but for the widest range of lenses whether from the same manufacturer of third party(e.g Sigma, Tamron) the prime targets would be Canon or Nikon. As a base for camera bodies I would consider Nikon D5200(second hand), Nikon D5500, Nikon D7100(second hand) or if possible Nikon D7200. Of course there are more expensive options. I would not recommend extenders for lenses that have a fixed aperture of greater than F4. Any higher and your camera body may not auto focus and the focus speed is to slow and the reduction in sharpness to high. From Canon you might consider 100D, 750D or 7D mark 1(second hand). Again there are more expensive options. Lens options might be Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6 E ED VR, Nikon AF-S 300mm f/4 D ED(second hand) with 1x4 extender. Canon Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM(second hand) Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM. Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM C. Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD. On a budget Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3 EX DG HSM(second hand). I would not recommend the use of extenders of lenses with an aperture higher than F4 as your camera may not auto focus, the focus speed will be too slow and the reduction in sharpness will be to high.
Hi Gina Brain has given you some good advice what i would recommend what your budget would be and do you prefer Nikon or canon and i recommend you stay with one of these as they both have a large range of gear and before buying the lens you decide on hire it fore a week to see if you can handle the wait and a good starting lens is 300f4 and they can also take great Macro shots as well and remember we all started out the same as you so we can help you not make some of the mistake we all made here to help
I just bought a panasonic FZ70 for birding, it certainly has the reach but as yet I have had no opportunity to try it , one problem is the focus I half press the shutter and the camera pops into focus, then in a millisecond it seems to go out of focus yet the green dot is on, am I doing something wrong or have I got a wrong setting? I do not have the instruction book. So Gina beware, you need at least 600mm reach, on most cameras dropping down to say 5mm extends it with very little image loss. good luck.
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