>>1114811By difficult I meant within your budget.
You already know that good optics aren't cheap.
The tripod or some way to stabilize yourself is pretty much always a requirement
As I see it, you have four options.
1) a bridge camera like the Sony HXwhatever, or the Nikon P5somehing. Long range, but terrible quality in low light (small sensor, dim lens). Unlikely it will focus properly in low light either.
2) an older Sony NEX like the NEX 5, and good bright lens such as Tokina 300mm f/2.8 in FD mount .
This will give you an effective focal length of 450mm. No autofocus or zoom of course. Tokina 80-200 f/2.8 if you want zoom.
You should be able to get reasonably sharp photos and videos for around an hour before/ after sunrise/sunset with this setup.
A 2x teleconverter doubles the focal length of your lens, but you lose one stop of light transmission. It's worth having.
3) same lens as above, with a M4/3 camera. Doubles your focal length to 600mm. 1200mm with 2x telecon.
Don't know enough about specific models to recommend one. Panasonic GH5 maybe?
4) a modified go-pro type camera, with adapted security camera lenses. diy solution. Under $300.
Probably the best results but almost not worth mentioning.
