The full frame should, everything else being equal, have greater dynamic range and more tones as the individual sensors are bigger. This also means less noise as less amplification is needed. However the full sensor cameras are very unforgiving of any optical defects of the lens in use, especially at the edges whereas the cropped sensor cameras only use the ''sweet spot'' in the centre where there are less abberrations. Nowadays the wide angle issue is not an issue as the purchase of one wide lens (I have the Canon 10-22 EF S lens) solves that problem. The Canon 5D gives superior results to the 30D etc if coupled with good ''L'' lenses but if you take lots of very long lens shots as you do with your birds I would be inclined to stay with the cropped sensor as really long L glass is not cheap!
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