08/11/2026
I am so immensely saddened by the loss of Jackie. I remember being in high school when my English teacher introduced our class to a pair of bald eagles with a nest cam. She put that livestream on for us during independent work time and I always found it so fascinating. It wasn’t until much later that I found Jackie and Shadow’s story to follow, but I remember feeling so incredibly grateful for getting the opportunity to observe these beautiful birds. Fly high sweet Jackie, you are so deeply missed by so many people 💙🦅
Jackie was rescued on July 17 after an altercation with two subadult eagles left her grounded near Dana Point Park, about 170 miles from her Big Bear Valley home. Ojai Raptor Center said she passed away in the early hours of Aug. 10, following more than three weeks of treatment for severe anemia and kidney inflammation.
Her care involved nine veterinarians plus representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. She received a blood transfusion from another eagle on July 20 and underwent oxygen therapy, and vets ruled out lead poisoning, cancer and metal objects through extensive testing. Her packed cell volume fell below 6% on Aug. 8, rose to 9% the next day, then she was gone.
Jackie was the first eaglet hatched in Big Bear Valley in 2012. Her fame came from a solar-powered we**am that sits 120 feet off the forest floor, an idea that took two years and $10,000 to make real. Sandy Steers of Friends of Big Bear Valley, who lived half a mile from where Jackie was born, described her as "very determined, very serious, and she expects to get her way."
She found romance with an eagle named Shadow, and the two had been together for nearly a decade and shared eight eaglets. Their most recent, Sandy and Luna, took off for the wild and were last seen on the cam on July 23.
"Soar free Jackie," the center said. Her remains were transferred to the care of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.