Date: 2/7/26 9:11 pm From: Zane Pickus via groups.io <zanep987...> Subject: [centralvalleybirds] Delta Birding 7 Feb 2026: Sacramento OROR, searching for ALHUs, etc.
Hi Birders,
Today I joined Emmett Iverson, Ethan Monk, Julian Johnson and Tom Uslan for a day of birding the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, focusing our efforts on Contra Costa, Sacramento, and Yolo counties. As Chris Conard shared earlier, the highlight of our day was a stunning adult male ORCHARD ORIOLE in the town of Courtland. The bird worked its way around a large bottlebrush and put on a show for us for ~30 minutes until we left it in the same spot. Others were successful in chasing it later in the day, with the bird continuing to frequent the bottlebrush at: 38.32743, -121.5720. Many thanks to Tom for showing us this awesome spot! This appears to be the first documented record for Sacramento County.
Highlights from our morning on Bethel Island, Contra Costa County, included a male HOODED ORIOLE and several displaying male ALLEN'S HUMMINGBIRDS. This is a traditional location for Allen's in the Delta.
On Sherman Island, Sacramento County, we were blown away by astounding numbers of ducks and geese, and were happy to find a single ALLEN'S HUMMINGBIRD in the eucalyptus on the northeast side of the island. The bird seemingly took off across the slough to Brannan Island SRA but despite some searching there we could not turn up any Allen's in that location.
Later, we were pleased to find at least two displaying male ALLEN'S HUMMINGBIRDS at Korth's Pirate Marina off Brannan Island Road (a spot recommended by Emmett and Aidan Brubaker, who had photographed one nearby in 2024). This spot also hosted dozens of nesting DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS and GREAT-BLUE HERONS - fun contributions to the California Bird Atlas ( https://ebird.org/atlascalifornia/home)!
Courtland was highlighted by the Orchard and plenty of ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRDS. The bottlebrush here seems worth additional visits in the spring for migratory species. We ended the day at a few spots around Clarksburg, Yolo County. Most notable were ~150 SANDHILL CRANES on the ground off HWY84/Jefferson Blvd. Tom had ~700 here a few days ago, an exceptional count for Yolo. The cranes were the perfect way to cap off a spectacular day of winter birding in the Delta.
