Craig

I cant comment on the specifics of the Nikon because I am not a Nikon user.  For what it's worth, though, here's where I have got to in terms of setup on my camera:

• The complexity of modern mirrorless is wonderful in many ways, and when I got mine I tried a range of different set ups, following the YouTube influencers to some extent.  In the end, though I found a lot of this to be a waste of time, because I ended up deciding that for most purposes the defaults worked just as well.  I love having good eye autofocus, and have tweaked my autofocus settings a bit, but beyond that its just photography, and too much technology (and too many buttons to worry about) is just distracting and gets in the way.  There is such a thing as too much choice.  Set up the camera simply, so your photography can focus on the action not the camera.
• Ian is absolutely correct.  For a lot of bird photography, you don't really need to fiddle too much with aperture and shutter speed, so set them manually.  Modern high end lenses are optically excellent at most if not all apertures, even wide open.  I have a relatively slow lens, and therefore use mine at or near the widest possible, to allow me to maximise shutter speed, and I really have never been able to say the lens was the problem for my lack of sharpness.  I usually just set and (mostly) forget - on my recent Africa trip I pretty much did the entire trip wide open (f7.1) or f8, with very occasional forays to smaller apertures for depth of field.  Likewise you can generally get away with only a small range of shutter speeds, depending on whether you are aiming to capture fast motion, or maximise light in gloomy situations.
• So that means the thing that gets adjusted most is ISO.  Some people get fussy about high ISO, and its true that you lose dynamic range etc, but modern noise reduction software essentially eliminates noise as an issue. It's then a choice between manually changing ISO, or setting AutoISO and using exposure compensation when necessary.  I prefer the latter, finding it more responsive and flexible, and it's what I am used to.  But use whatever works for you. If you do go manual ISO, consider setting the ISO increments at one stop per click, rather than one third of a stop per click.  It is much quicker to adjust that way, and less fussy
• I don't like using back button focus for various reasons, but I still find it useful to have a quick means of flipping between 1 shot and continuous (servo) autofocus.  So I programmed a button to flip between the two.
• So, in summary, all I have done is:  an easily accessible, comfortable dial for quickly changing shutter speed (for me this uses my forefinger);  the less comfortable dial for changing aperture (using my thumb); let ISO look after itself; a button for quickly flicking between servo and single shot autofocus (but using front button autofocus), and a button for accessing exposure compensation quickly.  I also have a button which allows me to flick between a couple of autofocus settings (eg single point, wide area).

Sorry this might not be of much help.

Simon

Apologies - on my screen the dot points in my post above have disappeared.  Hope it still makes sense.

Simon

Thanks Simon, appreciate your comments and tips.

Best regards,
Craig

My wife has a Z8 but depends on me to set it up for her.  Her specific photography genre is birds (generally stationary/perched) however she really wishes to move onto the more challenging genre of birds in flight (BIF). Accordingly, I've determined and prioritised in order those functions which are most important and required for BIF photography and allocated them to various buttons that she can readily access. I've also prioritised the actual buttons required for BIF taking into account that she has small hands and is unable to readily reach some of the programable buttons.  Accordingly, I've allocated a lower priority to those hard to reach buttons and a higher priority to the easier to reach ones. For example, the F1 button on the lower front is difficult for her to reach and manipulate, so it's been allocated a low priority whereas, the red video button on the top deck is easily manipulated (without removing the camera from the eye or the finger from the trigger) so it's been allocated a high priority. The camera functions (now suitably prioritised to suit her BIF ambitions) have then been allocated accordingly to the prioritised buttons. As an aside, she uses BBF exclusively.

 I can now take a deep breath, stand down and look forward to seeing her match Ian and his inspirational BIF images!!

Thought I would share the Z8 setup I have come up with.

With regard to exposure, I am going to start with manual mode plus auto-ISO, with exposure compensation programmed on the lens control ring for situations that require it.

Limit AF Area Mode Selection
I have removed the following from being selectable: Dynamic-small, Dynamic-medium, Dynamic-large, 3D-tracking and Auto-area.
This just leaves Single-point (compulsory, otherwise I would have removed it), Wide-area(S), Wide-area(M), Wide-area(L), Wide-area(C1) and Wide-area(C2). I have set C1 to 19x11 and C2 to 19x3.

Autofocus Overrides
I removed autofocus from the shutter release button and left the AF-ON button to perform only AF-ON.
Fn1 button is set to 3D-tracking only (not + AF-ON). This allows for a handoff to 3D-tracking whilst still holding AF-ON.
Fn2 button is set to Single-point + AF-ON
DISP button is set to Auto-area + AF-ON

Other Settings
Video record button is set to Recall shooting functions (hold). This enables a toggle to some predetermined settings, for which I have chosen 1/3200, wide open aperture, auto-ISO, auto-area AF. So, if I immediately need an "action" setting, I can just press the video record button.
Lens Fn1 button is set to save a focus position
Lens Fn2 button is set to recall the focus position
Lens memory set button is set to cycle live view info display, which I stole from the DISP button above.

I hope this will provide a good compromise between functionality available and manageability in the field. No doubt the above will evolve over time as I become more familiar with the camera.

Nikon has just released firmware 2.00 for the Z8.

At a glance, likely of interest to bird photographers will be:

Added [Birds] to [AF subject detection options] in the photo shooting menu.
Added [Birds] to [AF subject detection options] in the video recording menu.
Added [Auto capture] to the photo shooting menu.
Added [Auto capture] to the video recording menu.