General including wild life and birds

I have used digital point and shoot cameras for several years but almost always on Auto. Favourite so far is the Panasonic  Lumix DMC-TZ6 with 12x optical zoom. Going to Africa next month and want something with good zoom feature for birds and game. (Have a Fujifilm S9500 but can't be bothered with need for different lenses etc and anyway it's not working for some reason). So, important features include good zoom (in the x30 range, say), lightweight (I'll already have heavy binoculars round my neck and we have strict weight limits on small plane between camps), quick reaction times as birds have a habit of flying off just as the camera is primed to shoot, good results at low light levels early morning and late evening, and above all reasonably simple to use. It seems bridge cameras are the answer and I like the sound of the HS30EXR, but should I look for an automatic zoom rather than the manual on this model?

Any suggestions much appreciated.

David Jones