Architect1776 wrote:
The Canon EOS Rebel T7i DSLR Camera with 18-135mm and 55-250mm Lenses Kit is $1,198.00 at B&H Photo. With just the 18-135mm STM is pretty much right at you budget but for about 10% more you get a complete kit from wide angle to long telephoto.... the T7i can use ALL EF and EFs lenses ever made with NO issues and 100% compatibility which cannot be done with any other camera system which is pretty sweet.
The EF-S 18-135mm IS USM lens is good, but it adds cost and for wildlife photography you will be using the longer telephoto lens a lot more often.
Another kit with the Canon T7i that instead combines EF-S 18-55mm IS STM with the EF-S 55-250mm IS STM is currently on sale for $949, within the original poster's budget:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1329244-REG/canon_eos_rebel_t7i_dslr.html To be brutally honest, for wildlife photography there's no such things as a "long enough" telephoto lens. And while today there are a lot more "affordable" telephotos on the market than there were a few years ago, they're still well over your budget. For example, a superb lens is the Canon 100-400mm IS USM "II"... but it's around $2000. Sigma and Tamron are both far less expensive 100-400s at around $700 to $800, though not as good as the Canon. But even those would bust the original poster's budget, leaving too little $ to buy a camera and other things they'll need.
The 55-250mm is your best bet for now. And actually it's a very capable lens with a lot of potential. While an even longer lens might be nice, you can do a lot with this one and stay closer to your budget. Wildlife photographer Nial Benvie tells how for the first ten years of his career he shot with a 300mm lens fitted with a 1.4X teleconverter (a 420mm combo). Because the T7i is a "crop sensor" (APS-C) camera, a 250mm lens on it "acts like" a 400mm lens would on Nial's film cameras that he used at that time. So the 55-250mm would give you very close to the same "reach" he had, but at MUCH lower cost and FAR less bulk and weight to haul around.
In addition to the T7i, EF-S 18-55mm IS STM and EF-S 55-250mm IS STM lenses at $949, you also may want:
Extra memory cards, two 32GB SD cards cost approx... $20.
EW-63C lens hood (strongly recommended) for the 18-55mm STM lens.... $23.
ET-63 lens hood (strongly recommended) for the 55-250mm STM lens... $23.
Extra LP-E17 battery... $49.
Photoshop Elements 2019 software... $60 (on sale, reg. $100).
Or Photoshop Elements 2019 (photo) and Photoshop Premiere Elements 2019 (video).... $90 (on sale, reg. $150).
If you buy from them, B&H Photo includes a free shoulder bag and 16GB memory card with the camera. Shipping is free and there's no tax. The camera kit includes one battery & charger, shoulder strap, caps for lenses and camera, manual, 1 year warranty on it all. Canon software will be included too, but for a more all-in-one image organizer and editor I'd highly recommend Elements 2019. (You'll still likely want to install some of the Canon software such as EOS Utilities.)
Get started with the above. Then start saving toward a more powerful telephoto lens eventually. Good ones that don't cost as much as a use car include the Canon 100-400mm II (~$2000), Tamron 100-400mm (~$800 + $129 for tripod ring sold separately) or Tamron 150-600mm G2 (~$1500). I'd also recommend saving another $400 to $500 for a tripod, while you're likely to want with these larger lenses. Later you might want to fit the tripod with a gimbal head and a good one like the Nest costs around $250.
You might find what appears to be a better price from other retailers online. Some are reliable, but a lot aren't. Beware of substituted items, bait n' switch, etc.
EDIT:
Some have suggested "bridge" cameras with non-interchangeable "super zoom" lenses. Those cameras can give you a lot of "reach" so you can stay home in your living room and photograph wildlife in Africa (okay, not really).... BUT they use tiny little sensors that cannot match the image quality of a DSLR. You're also pretty much stuck with the one lens, so will have less versatility for any future changes.
Mirrorless cameras have also been mentioned. One problem with those is cost. They're "too popular", so prices are staying high. You can get more camera for your money buying a DSLR. There also is nowhere near the selection of native lenses for mirrorless cameras, than there is for DSLRs... especially the extensive Canon and Nikon systems. There are adapters that allow some DSLR lenses to be used on mirrorless... but doing that sort of defeats one of the top reasons buy into mirrorless systems, their smaller size and lower weight. In addition, small/light mirrorless cameras can feel unbalanced and clumsy when used with a "big telephoto" like you'll probably eventually want for wildlife photography. It wouldn't be an issue with a more modest size lens like the 55-250mm mentioned above... but if/when you get something bigger and heavier, you might not like the combo. Finally, shooting wildlife can mean sitting and watching through the camera's viewfinder for long periods of time, waiting to some action or the just the right pose. The optical viewfinder of a DSLR like the T7i draws no power to speak of.... But the electronic viewfinder in most mirrorless cameras, nice as it can be for some things, is a heavy power user and tends to drain the battery a lot faster. Using a mirrorless camera on a wildlife shoot might require 2X or 3X as many spare batteries as DSLRs.