Which camera will work best for my needs?

I have 3 cameras in mind - the Nikon D5000, the Canon T3, and the Canon T1i.
For the most part, I usually take photos of scenery/wildlife from afar.

Added (1). With the T1i, I'd be getting an 18-55 lens
The T3 an 18-55 also and a 75-300,
and with the D5000 a 15-55 and 55-200.

Truth be told, the biggest factor here is not going to be the camera body, its going to be the glass you put infront of it.

i've shot on both nikons and canon bodys and personally prefer canon, but thats entirely down to preference, check your local camera store and ask to have a play with each, feel out what you like, and then ask them to load the shots onto a computer so you can compare. This way you can try to take a similar shot a few times and then compare the results yourself.www.dpreview.com is a bit of a bible for photography - they do great reviews on cameras, and also lenses.

currently i'm shooting on a 5d mkii and a 7d and i use L lenses on both, but there are some good standard lenses out there, again i would say ask to demo the ones in your budget, and compare the shots. If you are shooting to try and get closer to far away objects, and create more of a portrait of a landscape then look at telephoto lenses, (somewhere between 70mm and 150mm would be plenty) but you won't get the sense of "being there" at that focal length - if you want to capture a whole scene then you will want a wider lens, so should be looking at something with a 20-50mm range.

there are some lenses out there with ridiculous zooms on them where you may get a very very wide focal range, however what you will probably find with these lenses, is that the quality of the glass to make them affordable is compromised, and you may see barrel distortion, or heavy vignetting on your shots that is hard to remove in post, however if you want to do any portrait work, wide angle lenses are not very flattering for your subject, and tend to warp peoples faces so that they look distorted - it can create a good effect, but limits you to a certain style of portrait, and is not ideal for regular portrait use.

Love Canon EOS Rebel T3 camera. Takes excellent pictures and I love that it has a movie mode that can be used with manual focus. I was debating between this product and the Canon XSi and I learned that this camera is like the laptop compaired to the XSi as the old desktop. This is the newest product but is fantastic. Love the menu they put on this camera and the lens that comes with the kit is a pretty good quality lens. EXCELLENT PRODUCT!