I used Canon PowerShot SX30 IS in 2011 (here’re all photos of birds from that period), bridge cameras can certainly photograph birds in flight, big problem for me is that to zoom it takes time, so unlike dslr you either have to leave it turn on all the time or you can miss many moments while zooming in, of course focusing type working with display is far from great (and if there’re branches forget about focusing on the bird), but you certainly can focus in flight too. I wasn’t into settings at all at that time and still got something at least idable:
