More info would help. Are you going to be several miles into the backcountry? Will you have access to pack horses or lots of hunting buddies to help share the weight? If so, I would go for a scope with an ~80mm objective over the 50-60 range.

I have Nikon 8x42s. They do the job for anything less than half a mile but more than that I like to have my spotter. Downside is I often hunt alone or withonly one buddy so its tough to pack my Nikon 82mm. I have the 30x wide angle ep. I love the wide angle ep but I wish I could trade someone for the 75x wide angle lens. Some would say get the 25-75x zoom instead of a fixed but you're going to find that in the zooms you loose a lot of brightness and the field of view is significantly dimished towards the higher magnifications. If you're going birdwatching, field of view isn't that critical. When you're trying to spot big game, FOV is critical for a scope.

So my recommendation, weight permitting, is a scope around $1,000 with a ~70-80mm objective lens and a 60-75x eyepiece. Best luck and God bless.