A lot of people discovered the Big Bear Bald Eagle Cam during Covid, but I discovered it in January of 2025. As a darkness spread over the nation, I needed some place to escape, and Facebook obliged. It showed me not only the eagle cam, but bear cams from Lake Tahoe. The bear cams were sheer comfort food – mama bears sleeping, their cubs playing, comfy and cozy.
The eagle cam was something else. Christopher Nolan and Walt Disney couldn’t have imagined a more effective collaboration. The camera – in startlingly clear HD – was trained on a nest high up above the lake, the landscape unfolding below it like the view from an observation deck. And the eagles obliged with a show worthy of the setting: Jackie and her mate, Shadow, raising families in this unbearably beautiful place, tiny fluffball eaglets growing as their regal parents kept steely watch.
Jackie was born in Big Bear in 2012 – the first eagle to be born there in a long time. The webcam was installed on the same nest she was born in, and she even had some Love Island drama. Jackie’s first mate, Mr. B, disappeared for a while and Shadow moved in. Mr. B tried to reclaim his home but Jackie rejected him and Shadow was in.
In a way, I’m glad I didn’t watch in those Covid years, because there was a LOT of heartbreak along the way. Eggs were laid that didn’t hatch (ravens ate them live on camera), one chick didn’t survive hatching, another died in a snowstorm.
Still Jackie raised four eaglets over that time, strong birds who grew and fledged and made their way into the world on their own.
In 2025, Jackie laid three eggs which hatched. Just a few days later, there was a tremendous blizzard over Big Bear, and this incredible footage emerged.
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I’ll never forget the first time I watched that video of Jackie shaking the snow off, only to reveal the chicks beneath her. Here was nature at its most savage, beautiful, and tender all in one, the circle of life edited down to its most basic drama.
It was also a tragic video. One of the chicks, Misty, didn’t make it through the storm. There was a day of anxious watching on the livestream. Where was the third chick, everyone asked, and then its tiny body was spotted at the side of the nest.
What happened next was even more unforgettable. “She’s going to eat it,” I thought, thinking of some other hard equations of nature. Instead, Jackie picked up the limp body in her beak and flew away, majestic and tragic. No filmmaker could have imagined a scene more elegiac and heartbreaking.
The Big Bear Eagle Cam was always fraught with danger and peril. Ravens came for the eggs, other birds attacked the nest, death could come in a thousand ways.
The two surviving chicks of ’25, Sunny and Gizmo, fledged that year. And then Jackie and Shadow went about their eagle things. We saw them flying, courting, mating, repairing the nest.
In 2026 the story became even more dramatic. I know some producer somewhere is already planning a film about Jackie, or some bald eagles, because it is just so compelling.
Jackie laid two eggs in January – video captured her making a particular whistling sound as she laid them. But then one of them cracked – fully visible on the webcam. Jackie and Shadow somehow knew this wasn’t the time, left the nest unguarded and ravens were there in a jiffy, scarfing down a meal for their own survival.
Raising a second clutch is risky, and rarely successful, but Jackie laid two more eggs. And they hatched. Sandy and Luna emerged, these two constantly bickering and fighting over fish scraps, but under the watchful eye of their parents they also grew up.
In June, just as they were learning to fly – fledging – Sandy fell out of the nest! More agony and anxiety for the thousands of people watching. It turned out she had “fludged” to a lower branch. Her parents bought her food and eventually she managed to fly back to the family home. It looked like another successful breeding season had passed, Jackie and Shadow’s amazing parenting overcoming the early setbacks.
But then…a tragedy no one saw coming. Jackie was missing from the nest for a few days and another cam saw an adult eagle being attacked by juveniles, and then, this devastating video of Jackie, queen of the skies, struggling through shallow water.
Jackie was rescued by humans and taken to the Ojai Raptor Center for the best treatment possible. I was at San Diego Comic Con, but checking FB regularly for updates. Surely humans would fix everything, right? It turned out Jackie had some mystery illness causing severe anemia. She got a blood transfusion from another eagle but every day her blood count lowered. She was one very sick bird. I knew the end wouldn’t be happy but even so, yesterday morning, Monday August 10th, she died, and when I read the news I burst into tears. Thousands of people did.
Here I should mention that the eagle cam has thousands of viewers but also a subculture of people who write about it, mostly on Facebook but TikTok also has a lively output. Some of the writers heavily anthropomorphize the goings on at the nest – it’s nearly impossible not to – and some go hog wild. AI content is common. I understand there are feuds and factions and this person does it wrong, and all that fandom stuff. But the eagles touched people in so many ways. This kind of unexpected subculture is testament to the power of the eagle cam.
The LA Times has a piece with quotes explaining what the eagles meant to so many people. It’s very touching, and understandable why folks became so invested.
For one, Jackie was an incredible mother, brave and enduring. Another snowstorm before I started watching showed her sitting on the eggs for 60 straight hours in a blizzard. This is what propelled her to “superstardom,” as one writer put it.
Also, Jackie and Shadow were the platonic ideal of a couple. Bald eagles mate for life, and partner completely. They worked as a total team of equals, sharing time on the nest, taking turns hunting for fish. They also specialized: Shadow was in charge of bringing in nesting materials and often annoyed Jackie with poorly timed sticks. But they were in it together, steadfast and dedicated.
There are few things the Times piece doesn’t mention, probably because they are so obvious. First, bald eagles just look incredibly cool. That’s it. They are beautiful creatures and it gives joy to watch them do anything. I doubt JRR Tolkien ever watched an eagle webcam but he knew eagles looked noble and stern. If Jackie was just a bit bigger I know she would have carried that ring to Mount Doom and saved all the hobbits.
Second, and here’s what I think was missed, watching the eagles connects us to nature in a meaningful, deep way. The spectacular setting, the power of instinct guiding all the complex behavior, the cruelty of fate – these are the things that shape our world even when we don’t realize it. As much as humans believe they are masters of destiny, we’re still animals who are great at nest building. We’re not guided by instinct the way the eagles are, but remembering that we’re part of the natural world gives us a powerful kinship with it. Yeah, it’s called being grounded. Even encased in a city of steel and mortar, I could watch the eagle cam and become part of the larger natural world.
Since Jackie left the nest, life has gone on. Sandy and Luna left to find their own fortunes. There is yet another heartbreaking video of Shadow calling for his mate, but eagles do move on. Another young bird, maybe female, is already trying to pal up with Shadow and nature will take its course. Hopefully we’ll see future families being raised in the high nest, even if Jackie left big feathers to fill.
Jackie’s death is tragic but she has done so much in her time. Her habitat was in danger of being sold and turned into condos or something, so Friends of Big Bear Valley started a campaign to raise $10 million to purchase Moon Camp, where Jackie lived. Sounds unlikely, but they did it. Jackie did it!
The 63 acres of undisturbed forested open space and shoreline, inhabited by the bald eagle couple, was the site of a planned luxury housing development of 50 custom homes.
The San Bernardino Mountains Land Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting forest land in the San Bernardino National Forest, reached its grassroots fundraising goal of $10 million to purchase the land in order to prevent the construction of the planned development.
Even Open Ai co-founder and president Greg Brockman and his wife Anna gave $5.5 million to the fund. It’s probably the best thing a tech mogul has done in a long time – there are actually good things you can do with all that money, people.
There are other places to donate:
Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that operates the nest camera, supports wildlife education, and helps protect habitat in the Big Bear area.
American Eagle Foundation – Bald eagle conservation, rehabilitation, education, and research.
The Peregrine Fund – Protects birds of prey around the world, including California condors and other endangered raptors.
National Wildlife Federation – Conserves wildlife and restores habitat across the United States.
On Monday morning, at about 6 am, I awoke from a nightmare about my cat, Lucy. It was the kind of bad dream that prevents you from going back to sleep, so I called to Lucy and gave her some cuddles. Jackie passed in the early hours of the day, so this was probably right around the time she died. I realized even then that the dream was most likely a product of my worries about Jackie. I don’t want to get too mystical here, but it happened, and that was part of my connection to her.
I’m going to Maine in a few days for a much needed vacation and family doings, and over the years I’ve spotted several bald eagles there near estuaries where they hunt for fish. Earlier this year I spotted one flying over my parents’ house, which is near the head of Lake Damariscotta. There’s undoubtedly an eagle nest somewhere nearby, playing out its own daily triumph and tragedy but without a webcam. I will hold them in my heart.
And Jackie, you were an inspiration to us all.
Fly free and strong, queen.
