Other Equipment & Accessories

Looking for a bird hide for your local reserve or just a way to scare away those neighbourhood moggies? Then take a look at the suppliers below.

There are separate Fatbirder pages for some essential birding equipment; optics (both retail and manufacturers for repairs etc., bird food, outdoor clothing and so on.

Like any other hobbyists we all like to buy kit that might prove useful… but I have heard it said of fishing that more anglers are caught by equipment than are fish, so we probably all have something tucked away in a drawer that we thought, at the time, was a great idea, but that turned out to be impressive to us, but useless for birding.

Having said that, the one accessory that I wouldn’t be without is insurance. These days optics are so damn expensive that losing them or damaging them when out in the field could end up as a major expense. So, a few pounds a year insuring them is a great investment.

Personally, I add insurance for specific items to my household insurance policy, but there are specialist companies out there too. Many companies specialising in mobile phones and laptops cover will also cover cameras, binoculars and scopes.

The other bit of kit that almost all birders tend to carry is some sort of notebook. The best of us may draw inspiring pictures of what they see and extensive notes, but even those lesser mortals like me sometimes need to jot down lists of what was seen where and when.

Half-collared Kingfisher Alcedo semitorquata – ©Dubi Shapiro

NB I review accessories and am happy to do this, but please do not assume that sending me a freebie guarantees a good review… if I publish a review, it will reflect my true feelings and experience. However, I’m not out to hurt anyone’s sales, so if you are unhappy with the review I won’t run it. However, if I do run it, I will not alter anything I say (unless I’ve made an error of fact).