You also might wanna try bridge cameras first. These are fully controllable P&S cams, often with superzoom. It usually has AV (Aperture priority), T (Shutter), Manual, Program etc. You'll be spending a lot of money on lenses with DSLRs just to achieve the zoom range of these. There are trade-offs, often IQ -but negligible esp if you're not a pro shooter.

Canon sx30is (24mm-840mm); Panasonic fz100 (25mm-600mm); and Nikon P500 (22.5mm-810mm) to name a few.

When you get to max out the capabilities, then it's time to get a DSLR.

Again, buy only from Authorized resellers and avail of the 3-yr warranty (canon has 3, i'm not so sure about Nikon, AFAIK only 2).