After a weeks-long battle with a mysterious illness, Big Bear’s beloved bald eagle Jackie died Monday morning at an Ojai rehabilitation center. She was 14.
Jackie and her mate, Shadow, delighted millions of viewers as stars of a nonstop livestream of their nest, perched high in a Jeffrey pine overlooking Big Bear Lake. Since the pair formed in 2018, fans have watched them weather freezing winter storms, incubate eggs and dote on fuzzy chicks.
But in mid-July, Jackie was found weak, disheveled and unable to fly on the north shore of the lake following a scuffle with two younger eagles. She was rescued and transferred to the Ojai Raptor Center, where experts treated her until her death.
“We know this news will be deeply felt by the many thousands of people around the world who have followed her journey, hoped alongside us, prayed for her and supported the people caring for her,” the center wrote in an Instagram post.
“Our team is heartbroken. It has been an extraordinary privilege to care for her.”
In an earlier post, Chris Eksteen, the center’s executive director, said fighting likely left Jackie grounded but did not cause her symptoms. Tests revealed she had severe anemia, leading to a blood transfusion from another eagle.
“What we are seeing suggests that she has been unwell for some time before she was found,” he said in an Instagram post this month.
Despite a battery of tests, including a contrast CT scan and bone marrow biopsy, experts could not determine what was making Jackie critically ill.
Jackie sits on an egg in her nest overlooking Big Bear Lake.
(Friends of Big Bear Valley)
Since arriving in Ojai, her health journey was uneven. Her blood values, including packed cell volume — which measures the percentage of red blood cells in her bloodstream — increased and fell several times.
About a week and a half into her care, she was moved out of the intensive care unit, offering a glimmer of hope. But on Aug. 3, the center reported her packed cell volume fell to 13%, meaning her anemia had worsened.
“Over the past several days, her condition continued to deteriorate despite intensive treatment and the combined efforts of our veterinary team and consulting specialists,” the Ojai center said in its announcement.
She was receiving oxygen therapy, supportive treatment and nonstop monitoring in the ICU, the center said.
Jackie’s remains have been transferred to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The center said it is working with that department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and will provide another statement with more information about her treatment and test results.
News of Jackie’s death sent ripples of mourning through her fan base. Thousands took to social media to express their condolences and praise the avian matriarch.
“She lived an incredible life and inspired many,” Facebook user Jordan Markowski wrote. “Who knows how many people have and will go on to do great things to preserve and protect wild spaces and creatures because of her.
“And now in her final act, albeit unknowingly, she’s made space for the next generation of eagles in the circle of life.”
“I’ll never forget this period of knowing Jackie and Shadow. They have been such a light in the dark times that we are having in the US,” Margie Boyd Stansell wrote on Facebook.
Jackie’s rise to reality stardom began after Friends of Big Bear Valley installed a webcam in 2015 to capture the goings-on of her parents’ nest. Unbeknownst to the nonprofit, that couple — dubbed Ricky and Lucy — had shifted to a new nest and soon left the area altogether.
An eagle believed to be Jackie started hanging around the old nest. A male, called Mr. B., joined her.
During the summer of 2018, “an adult male intruder showed up to the nest and, with great tenacity, refused to leave,” Friends of Big Bear Valley wrote. Mr. B. eventually moved on, and the interloper, dubbed Shadow, moved in.
Jackie and mate Shadow pictured in January 2021. The couple formed in the summer of 2018, when Shadow pushed out Jackie’s former mate.
(Friends of Big Bear Valley via Associated Press)
In 2021, a second camera was added to capture a wider view of the eagles’ habitat.
In their eight years nesting together, Jackie and Shadow raised numerous chicks and bonded by restoring their nest.
But raw, unadulterated nature delivers both sorrow and joy. In late January, the couple’s clutch of two eggs was eaten by ravens. Not long after, Sandy Steers, executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley, died after a private battle with cancer.
Jackie laid another pair of eggs in late February. That clutch was successful, with the two eaglets — Luna and Sandy — fledging this summer.
Sandy, named to honor Steers, and brother Luna were last seen on camera on July 23. “It appears they have left the valley on their grand journey,” the nonprofit wrote on Facebook.
Colleagues of Steers carried on her mission, including an effort to raise $10 million to buy land near the eagles’ nest that was slated for development. In late July, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna, donated $5.5 million to the cause. That large infusion, along with thousands of smaller donations, surpassed the fundraising goal. A land trust now will steward the roughly 63 acres.
Since Jackie’s rescue, fans have wondered what will become of Shadow and the life she left behind in Big Bear.
Friends of Big Bear Valley acknowledged it’s impossible to know what the future holds. Shadow, who is 12, could find a new mate or even leave the Big Bear area.
