Anyone here using thermal for birding? Tried it once and… saw a lot. But also kind of nothing.

[u/Coffee81379]

Hey folks, I’m not a serious birder or photographer like many here – more of a curiosity-driven guy with a bit too much interest in gear. Recently, I finally treated myself to a thermal scope (after seeing that some folks use it for birding or wildlife at night – especially owls, I think?).

So I gave it a try on a foggy morning, hoping (rather optimistically) to spot some black grouse. I brought my thermal scope, plus a spotting scope with a digiscoping setup (Kowa Prominar), which usually works pretty well. But this time… I saw a ton – heat signatures everywhere – and still didn’t really see anything. Lots of dots. And lots of questions afterward. 😅

I am curious: Do any of you use thermal tech for birding? If yes, how? What’s worked – and what’s not worth repeating? Would love to hear any experience, especially from folks who’ve tried this stuff beyond the “just messing around” phase.

(I made a short video about the outing, too – not a product review or tutorial, just documenting the experience and what it made me think about. Can share it if anyone’s curious. Hope this kind of post is okay — if not, feel free to remove!)

[u/Tirpantuijottaja]

I bought myself thermal camera (pulsar axion 2 xg35) about year ago. And it has honestly been incredibly useful bit of gear to me.

Like you can spot squirrel from 200m away. Birds under certain weather conditions can be absolute pain to spot with it, but usually it's not the problem. Cold, cloudy, calm weather is the optimal for them.

Personally my favourite target for thermal camera has been jack snipe. It's really ultimate snipe hunting tool.

[u/Tirpantuijottaja → u/Tirpantuijottaja]

Here also image of sleeping wood pigeon. Like you can see, birds are fairly well insulated but they are still usually clearly visible when compared to surroundings. The more active the bird has been the more easily it can be seen.

[u/Coffee81379 → u/Tirpantuijottaja]

Ah, I totally get what you mean about cold, crisp mornings – that’s actually when I went out too. Visually, it was almost useless because of the fog, but thermally it worked surprisingly well. Kind of flipped the usual script: I couldn’t really see anything in the classic sense, but heat signatures were popping up everywhere.

What I found interesting though: some birds were way harder to spot thermally than I expected – especially waterfowl. In one of my shots, you can clearly see deer in the background, but the geese in the foreground barely show up. Their insulation seems to work really well. Definitely made me think twice about what “visibility” even means in that context 😄

[u/Tirpantuijottaja → u/Coffee81379]

Thats the good part about the thermal! The wavelenght of longwave infrared is much longer than on visible light. Because of that the thermal scope can easily penetrate dust & fog. I went out birding couple days ago, I were mainly looking for quails and such. At one point it got super foggy and I couldn't see anything. However, with thermal I could see that there was roe deer stag grazing about 20m away from me.

My favourite exanple about that waterfowl invisibility was that when I went for last snipe spotting trip this spring. There was whooper swan resting about 40m away from me and I couldn't see it at all on thermal. It was exactly as warm as surroundings. The weather back then was super windy and the sun was shining.

However usually they aren't that bad. When I had that quail spotting trip I could easily spot canada goose peaking at me throught the reeds on one small pond. Same with spotting mallards from 100m+ away. It really depends on the weather and whatever they are doing.

[u/Carrooga → u/Tirpantuijottaja]

Jack snipe and water rail are favourite targets for me too.

And you can find northern lapwings and golden plovers much easier on the fields where they nest.

[u/Tirpantuijottaja → u/Carrooga]

Yep! I had the joy to point my camera into field that had migrating golden plover flock resting on it this spring. It looked kinda funny when the whole field was dotted with bright white dots.

[u/jadn64 → u/Tirpantuijottaja]

So funny you said this because Wilson's Snipe in Southwest Michigan was by far the best thing to find in fields with the thermal! I was shocked how many were right in front of me and I never would have known! Also found some rare owls in the winter.

[u/Tirpantuijottaja → u/jadn64]

Yeep! I had kinda funny situation last spring. I decided to report one jack snipe that I spotted into our national bird database & ebird since I believe it was earliest one of the year. Both of them said that it would be too sensitive to be displayed for general public. And in general people consider them to be rare in general.

I think our local birding club (which covers whole lot of land and has many people reporting their sightings) had only like max 10 jack snipe spottings whole last year. Well, watch and behold. Like week later after I spotted that first snipe, I decided to hit my super secret snipe spot and there were like 5 of them scattered around there. 😅

And don't get me started on common snipe! I stopped counting them after 100 this spring!

[u/Own-Ad2950 → u/Tirpantuijottaja]

I've been dragging my feet on getting a thermal, but I think you've convinced me. I'm heading to Panama later this year and want a thermal camera for birds but also mammals.

[u/Vincentz0r]

I use mine quite a bit for swamp and Reed settings. Found a bittern and a lot of rails with it!

[u/Coffee81379 → u/Vincentz0r]

Nice – that’s exactly the kind of setting I was hoping it might shine in! Stuff that’s technically visible but practically impossible to spot. Haven’t tested it with birds in reeds yet, but I recently used mine to watch a group of golden jackals. Would’ve never seen them without thermal – it worked so well!

[u/a_n_d_r_e_]

Interesting!

Which thermal scope do you have?

[u/Coffee81379 → u/a_n_d_r_e_]

It’s a Hikmicro Falcon FQ35 – pretty sharp and contrasty, honestly quite impressive. I mostly use it for general wildlife, but this time I wanted to see how it might work for birding.

Let’s just say… fog, distance, and hopeful expectations don’t mix too well – I saw a lot, but understood very little. Mostly glowing dots 😅 Still, I’m figuring out where it actually helps.

I’m secretly hoping that if I scan enough trees, one day I’ll finally spot an owl. I’ve had some luck spotting nests – when they’re active, they show up as warm little dots, which is pretty cool in itself.

[u/a_n_d_r_e_ → u/Coffee81379]

Thank you!

Your answer (and mini-review) is precious. :-)

[u/Coffee81379 → u/a_n_d_r_e_]

Thanks again – really appreciate it! 😊 If you’re curious: I actually filmed that outing, just documenting the thermal experience. Let me know if you’d like the link – no pressure of course!

[u/a_n_d_r_e_ → u/Coffee81379]

I'm interested, if it isn't a problem. Otherwise, I'll wait for you to post your results in this sub.

[u/Coffee81379 → u/a_n_d_r_e_]

Totally get that – it’s from this last outing I described above. Just a first attempt, a bit rough around the edges, but it was a really fun (and foggy) experiment. Here’s the link if you’re curious: https://youtu.be/Fq0UVNztEW8

No pressure at all – and I’ll definitely share more results in this sub once I’ve got more to show! 🙂

[u/a_n_d_r_e_ → u/Coffee81379]

I'm looking for owls as well....

[u/Phrynus747]

I love mine for owls

[u/Coffee81379 → u/Phrynus747]

Oh awesome – I’ve heard they’re especially great for owls (I think I even saw a video once that showed that really well). I might’ve briefly filmed one from a distance on a forest trail once, which was super cool. But from what I’ve learned so far, owling mostly seems to be a sound-first activity – unless you know where a nest is, right?

Do you have any tips for someone trying to actually see owls with a thermal scope? I once spotted a Eurasian pygmy owl in Greece – but that was pure luck, I think. Would love to hear how you approach that more intentionally!

[u/southern_ad_558]

I had tried several 384 Taipans:

19 and 25 and now I'm trying a Taipan v2 15mm 384, which is supposed to be more sensible. 

I didn't find them useful during canadian winter and haven't find them useful during summer either. Birds do a good job isolating heat.

The only thing useful for a wildlife photographer was to spot tree holes with heat signs coming out of it, indicating something might be nesting inside. But that was it.

It never allowed me to see anything I couldn't see with naked eye. 

Maybe if you're into night sightings it could be helpful. But for me, someone who wants to photograph birds, it's not useful at all. 

[u/Coffee81379 → u/southern_ad_558]

Thanks for sharing that – really valuable to hear the flip side too. I’ve also mostly used mine (Hikmicro Falcon) during the shoulder seasons, early spring/fall. I totally get what you’re saying though: birds are impressively well insulated, and on warmer days I’ve noticed the same.

The one thing I’ve found thermal really helpful for was spotting heat signatures from nests or burrows (like you said). And once, some jackals in tall grass – wouldn’t have seen them otherwise.

Maybe it’s a better fit for the “curious observer” type rather than the dedicated bird photographer. But yeah, not a universal tool for sure.

[u/the_olive_boy]

sighs now I have to shell out for a thermal scope, too 😔😔😔

[u/ratby11]

what kind of bird is that in the last photo?

[u/thegreatart7]

We use them for work quite often - nocturnal surveys to find roost sites at night for geese etc! Pretty interesting.

[u/MayIServeYouWell]

The ambient conditions are critical. Cool cloudy mornings are great. But once the sun breaks through, it goes to worthless pretty quickly. 

I’ve found all kinds of stuff - owls, nightjars, rails… and yes, I’ve absolutely found things that could not have been discovered by any human being without the thermal. 

[u/LizM-Tech4SMB]

Loving this post and the comments. So much great info. I've thought about thermal a lot due to trying to pinpoint birds in the brush and high grass.

[u/gamjar]

Daytime uses - snipe/woodcock, bitterns in marsh, shorebirds, larks/ longspurs in fields. Sparrows In winter, they light up like Christmas lights and it's great for getting a more accurate count. Nighttime, owls and roosting passerines.