I'm looking for some also. I can't justify spending what a pair of Swarovskis cost. Is there something mid-range - $500 or so that is good?

Nikon Monarch 7 in the $500 range.

Google Bird Watching Internet Sites and read up on their recommendations for mid priced binoculars. That is your best source of information. When it comes to optics deer hunters are about your worst source of information because we tend to gravitate towards what is in a sporting goods store not a camera store. So you are going to get a bunch of the standard 30% Vortex is awesome and another 30% Leupold recommendations. On the high end you are going to hear Swaro. On the birding sites you are going to also hear Swaro but there are a LOT of good binoculars that cost less and you'll get to read all about them.

Every time this topic comes up I always think the same thing....Y'all some fancy, wealthy sonofaguns!

Feels like Thurston Howell, III is up in here recommending binos.

Nikon had a pair that were 180 marked down to 150 at Cabela’s so I went to get those but somehow walked out with the vortex crossfires. I am very satisfied. Couldn’t tell much difference so I went to no fault warranty that vortex offers

While the birding crowd might prefer to sip their Starbucks coffee as they gaze upon an early morning Ivory-Billed Peckerwood in their $500 Arcteryx Jacket. That ain't much different than the Kuiu crowd.

However....They know their glass. That is for sure.

Every single time! Seems like half these folks got gear piled up that cost as much as my house.

I'm just puttin' it out there. In Alabama, deer hunting, there is zero justifiable difference between an EQUALLY SIZED pair of $1,000 binos and $250 binos. There is, however, a justifiable difference between the $250 and the $75 pair. If you can't see every deer you'll ever try to look at with some 10x42 Nikon ProStaffs (or equivalent Vortex), your problem isn't the binos, and/or you've found that 1 / 1bazillion circumstance. Like I said, after that, you're just having a goober-shakin contest.

Very dumb post there.

Lots of unhelpful posts here....once again, lots of functional Binos in the$500 range. Nothing wrong with that. But please don’t try to argue that they are like what Kodiak06 calls the big 3. My boys use my old Pentax, Nikon, and Leopoldo Binos. When they make their own money they can decide whether to upgrade. I agree that I would rather have one set of $2000 binos than a closet full of midrange binos. That goes for rangefinders and scopes too.
Buy the best you can afford and don’t look back.

If you aint looking thru $2500 binos, shooting a $4000 rifle/scope combo, wearing $1200 in sitka gear, driving a $20,000 SxS to your shooting house and paying $12,000 to hunt high fence with a guide you aint hunting might as well just stay home you're wasting your time.