It is a mistake to wait on
birding until you can afford an expensive, premium grade
binocular. Why? Several reasons. Birding is a skill developed over years of experience, so get out there, now, and get that experience. What's more, you do not need to mortgage the house to get a
binocular that will do a good job when it comes to simply identifying birds. Yes, hard core birders, myself included, typically have a love affair with
expensive binoculars. Do we identify more birds because we carry very expensive binoculars? No, at least not directly. We carry such expensive binoculars because we are addicted to the image quality they provide; because they show the birds we love in even more glory than less expensive binoculars and, to some extent, because it is very difficult to go back to a lesser model when you've used the best. A premium
birding binocular does make birding even more enjoyable and therefore makes it more likely that you will go birding - in that sense a premium binocular can make you a better birder. If it was just a matter of identifying birds, though, an honest answer is that we could identify as many birds, or at least very close to it, with a binocular at half or even less than half the price of today's premium birding binoculars. Then, too not all expert birders carry expensive binoculars. I've known some truly superb birders who carried some relatively inexpensive birding binoculars. To be sure, it is a mistake to judge a birder by the binocular they carry.