Aye, perhaps. The Sony A9, which is what I was thinking of (I wouldn’t be recommending the A7 for birding), is designed for action photography. It’s significantly lighter than the Olympus (~600g vs ~1kg) and I’ll wager the AF performance is better, too (Sony are miles ahead in this respect, it seems). The only place I see it losing out is in reach, but the upside is that it’ll be better in low light.
Interesting comparison here:
It certainly gets an impressive score in that test. The lenses are significantly heavier but not prohibitively.
Food for thought.
I’m currently trying to find out when the Olympus loan scheme will be reintroduced, it was suspended during lockdown. If it isn’t going to happen by New Year, I’ll probably need to visit the Mainland as I won’t be spending that sort of money without trying them out.
I know I sound like a fanboi, but they really do lead the game for mirrorless. Just another option, really, I guess you’d need to play with one.
The G-series are very large and fearsomely expensive, but by all accounts superb. I guess that’s the downside of full-frame - the glass has to be bigger and therefore heavier.
I’m waiting for the A7/iii to have an offer on it and I’ll upgrade my A7r.
Do it.
I know zilch about birding photography, I don’t do telephoto (or low light, or people) and I still like SLRs 
Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m going to. Need to get some hands on experience with the main contenders first tho’
At this point I would say the army kind
A lot highly rate the A9 with the new 200-600 - mainly for the AF which locks on really well for BIF apparently, personally I’m not keen on Sony ergos and menu system and it’s a pricey set up. It’s also full frame, which gives you less reach.
DSLR-wise the Nikon D500 is brilliant for birding especially with the Nikon 200-500
A great lightweight birding combo is the Nikon 300 pf f/4 https://www.e-infin.com/uk/item/2470/nikon_af-s_nikkor_300mm_f/4e_pf_ed_vr_lens?gclid=CjwKCAiA2O39BRBjEiwApB2IknV85ME35yflMdmvLqHTPXLdV2n7z-d0J1zHcrSoga-eQfoY6F_tdxoCFhYQAvD_BwE with 1.4 teleconverter (f/5.6) perfect paired with the Nikon D500 - I had the 300 and used it much more than my 150-600 just because it was so light and very sharp. Regret selling it big time, but planned on getting the 500pf at some point, but now not sure.
Absolutely no idea if this is good or not but seems to a very high end camera with a freebie thing designed for bird photography
This is an absolute truth.
I managed a few not too shabby birding photos with a Canon ESO 80D usually paired with an 400m f5.6 lens…Shall have a ferret around If I can recall where they are now.
Taken Spring 2019 in the bottom garden…we have a number of large evergreen shrubs down there that are populated by swarms of sparrows and various tits, I was heading for the garage when a blur crossed my periphery vision and the shrubs erupted in an explosion of birds…some rustling in the shrubbery then all went relatively quiet
15 mins later all became clear as the killer revealed himself and hung around long enough for me to grab the Canon…
For no real reason been looking into the current telephoto offerings.
The Sony stuff is staggeringly good.
Now I want big lenses to take pictures of ickle birdies.
Just ordered the A7iii - Sony are doing £300 cashback, so couldn’t resist at that price.
Auto or manual? 
Fantastic image, Andy.
Very impressive.
The Sony A9II seems to be quite some piece of kit 
tho the Canon fairs pretty well
For quite a bit less £…I wonder whether Canon would take my 1DX in part exchange 
