Seldom you'll get so much performance from such a relatively cheap camera - it has a more expensive brother as well, with even longer zoom, but I have no experience with that!
It takes excellent HD films, with good stereo sound, and has a 18x optical zoom
(its 'bigger' brother has a 24x zoom), and is excellently suited to bird photography! At the long end of the zoom the OIS (optoical image stabilisation) isn't quite up to par, so attaching a monopod, to increase the camera's inertia, is an excellent idea (it doesn't need to touch the ground, just the extra mass does the trick!).
My wife has one of these, and I am tempted to get one for myself, as well!
The FZ100 has a focal length of 24-600 (equivalent), by the way!