Most/all birders I know have 7.5 or 8x. 10x is usually recommended against, AZfiddle is now officially the only birder I've ever seen recommend them. The ~8x have a bigger field of view and better light gathering.
A really great med-range brand is Swift.
If you've won the lottery, get some Ziess.
While I agree that you have to think hard about compacts, I really like them, because the best pair of binoculars are the ones you have on you!
Generally, think about the exit pupil size - this lets you know how much light and color you'll be able to see. Simplistically, you can calculate the "exit pupil" by dividing the lens diameter by the magnification, so in the examples given
8x25 = 3.13 (a little low)
10x42 = 4.2 (OK, but big and heavy)
8x35= 4.4 (Good and will be more compact) - so the last example will give you the best light gathering/truth in color... and, I think, a moderate size.
I just looked at the Cornel link (funny, I use that site all the time to aid in bird ID, didn't think of looking for bino recommendations)
This sums up what I was saying, but probably better
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAbou.../document_view