Sorry, not read everything yet.
We are not real birders, but generally interested in birds. We have traveled to several places in our country just to see birds. I have a simple bird book, which seems pretty complete for the birds that I have looked up.
I recently learned about this website, where you can learn about birds and do quizzes.
https://www.birdid.no/It is european, so it's not sure you have the same birds over there in the US.
We like to use a camera with good, general tele lens when watching birds. It is still a medium size, very sharp tele lens with zoom, but no extreme canon like real birders have.
With binoculars you will have to remember what the bird looks like, look into your book and look back at the bird, which might have moved or flown away. If you manage to snap a picture, it is much easier to look it up in the bird book.
We also use binoculars, in my case a waterproof Nikon 30mm 8x pocket bino that I also bring along on long hiking trips with heavy backpack.
This weekend we go to our cabin and it should be the time of the year that lots of migratory birds will spend some time there. I expect there to be a lot of water after the snow melting and that attracts birds who like wetness.
Next weekend we will go paddling in Sweden and on those lakes we will see a lot of water birds, which by now are a bit familiar. We have been there a number of times before. There is usually also a nest of a predator bird.