Photography

If you are asking this because you want to do it, one good budget option is to purchase a chair and a bird feeder. You can usually sit 8-10 feet away from the feeder and they'll still come. It is good practice, and if you are quick or careful with the framing, you won't have the feeder in every shot. For camera settings, google the following and see what other people are doing:

• [your camera model] birding settings
• [your camera model] BIF settings
• [your highest quality telephoto lens model] sweet spot (you are looking for the aperture setting where the lens starts to become very sharp, and the one where it starts to lose sharpness again. If its a zoom, this may vary across the zoom range)

Just as an example, I usually photograph birds with a 300mm f/4 lens that is sharpest from f/5.6-f/8. Settings are - shutter speed a little over 1/1000s, aperture in the sharpest range, and ISO set to auto. High speed burst always.

For lens choice, you are really going to be limited if you don't have anything 200mm+ and good quality. But if all you have is a 50mm lens or something, just move the chair closer. This is for feeder photos - for actual walking around, the longer the better. But try whatever you have. I have photographed hummingbirds with a 70mm lens and a 100mm lens - some animals just don't care what you are doing as long as you aren't moving aggressively towards them.