To answer in your price range, my brother who works optics at Cabelas is sold on Leupold. Honestly, I could not see the difference compared to the lower priced brands. My uncle's binos which I have inherited are Bushnell, 7 x 35. I purchased a like pair a number of years ago too.
I looked up on Cabelas and there is a Bushnell 10 x 42 for 149.99. For the type of use you mentioned, I would go with the higher power, to get a clear view of the birds, and as you are not going to be carrying them miles deer hunting, the large size should not matter. Weight is not so much a factor as materials are not all metal as in years ago.

There are matters of eye relief, or eye strain which are important. Any pair of binos you purchase look through it for five minutes to see how your eyes feel. That is the best test. You need something though for wildlife watching which is a bit clearer, but that is not in your price range.
lol on the wife taking over ownership of the best pair!!
Personally, the pair I use is a camo Tasco for the shirt pocket, as the last thing I want while hunting is to lose a 500 dollar pair of binos. I do not need to count the hairs on an elk or feathers on a turkey. All I need is to have a pair of binos which show me if I have an log or an animal, to save me from stalking a stick. I paid 12 dollars for the Tasco set.

In that, I would suggest that you purchase the best binos you can, and then add a cheap shirt pocket set. It helps with bird watching too as you can look at things as your wife has the better pair.
Check and see if you like the Bushnells at 150 as the Leopolds are out of my range at 319.99 too.

I hope that helps.

Awesome! I will probably get the crossfire for affordability. I have a pair of nikons and leupold, I need to send in my leupold to get fixed, not too long after getting them one of the lens went cockeyed. Got them as a gift last year, need to send them in to fix or replace.

Best advise I can give you is to go to a sporting good store, pick out three or four different brands in your price range and tell the salesman that you want to look at them outside. (If he wants the sale he will go with you, if not go to another store.) Check them out thoroughly, Best way to check clarity is to look at distant licenses plates and or signs. I don't know how many pair I bought and had buyers remorse after the purchase because I only looked through them in the store.

I bought the leupold bx-Acadia 8x42 on sale this past fall and have been pleased with them. There are several good YouTube channels that explain and demonstrate field of view, power & etc. I found them to be helpful.

I use mine for checking traps, deer season (in woods, no long distance), and some bird watching in the backyard. If you look in the t-man search you can finds some threads on this subject.

Cabelas often have these on sale, so if you are not in a rush, you could get a good price on them. The binoculars are great, however, the case and lens covers are about as cheap as you can get.