[Tweeters] non-technical question re: bridge cameras

[Gary Bletsch via Tweeters]

Dear Tweeters,
A week and a half ago, my Canon SX50 HS camera went kaputt. It turns on, it shows photos that I've already taken, but the view through the viewfinder is black, as if the lens cap were still on. The lens cap is most assuredly off! When I try to take a photo, I get an all-black image, with the time/date stamp right there as usual. Maybe Canon can fix it, maybe not; I haven't looked into that.
I don't speak camera, and don't want to learn that particular language. French might be more useful. 
I do want to replace the SX50 HS with something a little better. That camera was close to perfect for my purposes. I just like taking record shots, not trying for shots to be featured on the cover of a magazine.
Virtually every time I've ever tried to talk to other birders about cameras, the other person starts using a variety of technical terms that I find baffling; any attempt to get the person to explain it in layman's terms goes nowhere. It would be as if a birder with two weeks experience found himself thrust into a conversation about moulting gulls. "P1? P2? Huh?"
At the end of this message, I will ask a question; if you've read this far, thanks for your patience.
Here were the things that I liked about the SX50 HS.     --relatively compact size, easily stowed out of the way of my (far more important) binoculars by tucking into a closed vest;
    --wonderfully long zoom;
    --not terribly high price (I think I paid about $550 for it, maybe seven or eight years ago);
    --ease of use;    --reasonably rugged construction (never failed me until this month, never a problem with tiny bits of rainfall on it, survived a fall onto concrete once, and so forth).

There were a couple of characteristics that drove me batty, though.    --notwithstanding what it says in the user's manual, the camera offered nothing in the way of manual focus, which meant that even the wispiest blade of grass or the tiniest twig between me and the bird would make it impossible to focus on the bird;
    --an occasional tendency to respond slowly (sometimes glacially) to attempts to press this button or that, resulting in delays that cost me any chance of photographing a bird that was getting ready to move off. Once in a while, it was as if the camera had marched out of the Union Hall with orders to participate in a by-the-book slowdown!

So, here is the question. What bridge cameras would Tweeters recommend? I want something that is roughly the same size as an old-fashioned SLR, or a wee bit larger. I am not at all interested in interchangeable lenses, or any long lens other than a zoom. The camera stays under my vest unless I take a fancy to something worth photographing. I'd love to be able to focus manually, and to zoom onto a bird in the manner to which I've been accustomed.
Thank you one and all, for any willingness to answer that question in layman's terms.
Oh, here's a birding tidbit. Yesterday, I spent over an hour searching for a Snowy Owl here in Western New York. It was not on the Dunkirk Lake Erie breakwater where it had been for a few days. Where, oh where could it be? I was getting ready to leave, when I heard some crows. They were chasing something. The Snowy Owl landed two meters from me! Even without binoculars, I could see the bloodstains on the feathers of its feet! Way cool.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
garybletsch at yahoo.com
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