You practically answered your question, if you don’t have anything but phone with you, use the phone, but practically any camera, even without tele lens, will get better photos of birds in the distance. Definitely try to photgraph anything you wish to!
I don’t remember the exact topic about phone+birds, there was one, but here’s a recent topic about phones in general: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/who-thinks-phones-can-take-good-pictures/36741
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