Best phone camera for ID purposes

[KevinC]

Does anyone have a phone that will take decent enough photos to use to ID birds later, even at a distance? Say, across a lagoon, or winter peeps and gulls at the beach.
Some birds, like gulls and peeps, can be a real challenge to identify for me, so I like to try to get a shot I can use later to compare to online photos. This is also important for regular birds when I'm traveling, because not only do I not know what they are, I likely won't have Internet access while in the field.
If necessary, I'll take an actual camera, but that's just another thing to carry around and more batteries to charge.
I appreciate your suggestions and examples of pics you've taken with your phone. Remember, I'm not just looking for great close-ups (although those are nice, too) - I'm looking for photos you've taken of a bird on the other side of the river or street, but still managed to get a photo that can be used for an ID later.
Much appreciated!

[Jon]

You probably won't find a phone with a camera that is capable to do that.

BUT, you can take pictures using a phone + binoculars (or scope) and get decent pictures, but it takes a steady hand and a little practice.

Here's a picture taken with a scope and my Samsung


Nordmann's Greenshank at Pak Thale Nature Reserve (general area) by Jonathan Pap

[kenneth2019]

I agree with Jon, you need that optical glass, digital zoom just won't get you there. I am a newby to identification, I have a phone,binoculars,scope and now my identification camera. I was using my phone and scope for distance,but have trouble carrying the scope and tripod with my knee injury. I bought a Nikon P950 (combining optical glass and digital zoom) and use it as my indentification camera. My Pixel phone just can't do the job.

[kestrel]

I use a digiscoping kit from Phone Skope. Works like a charm.

Here's their website: phoneskope.com/phone-scope/

[KevinC]

Great tips, thank you all!
I actually do have an adapter to hold the phone to the binoculars, but both my phone and my binoculars are low-quality, so the adapter didn't really help.
Looks like I'm going to have to go shopping for binoculars and a new phone!

[Randy]

My personal opinion would be to get a bridge camera as suggested above. These high zoom point and shoot cameras and light and easy to carry.

Before going to an SLR, for years I had a Canon SX60 (which Brayden Beeke now has). I believe Joel (Kestrel) uses the Nikon version (this may be the same one Kenneth mentioned). As you can see they both get pretty good photos too!!

[kestrel]

I use the Nikon Coolpix P900, which has the same (83x) optical zoom as the P950. One feature of the P900 that I really like is the geo-tagging function.

Joel