Beloved Big Bear bald eagle Jackie dies after weeks of care

Jackie, the bald eagle whose decade-plus reign over a livestreamed nest in California’s San Bernardino Mountains turned her into an unlikely global celebrity, has died at a Ventura County animal hospital, wildlife officials said Monday.

The Ojai Raptor Center, which had treated the eagle for more than three weeks, said her condition continued to deteriorate despite intensive care, and that she died in the early hours of the morning. Center staff wrote in a social media post that Jackie had been “critically ill, receiving oxygen therapy, supportive treatment, and around-the-clock monitoring in our intensive care unit.”

Jackie was believed to be about 14 years old and was thought to be the first bald eagle hatched in Big Bear Valley in recent history, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that has operated a 24-hour nest camera on Jackie and her mate, Shadow, since 2015. The livestream turned the pair into internet sensations, drawing millions of viewers who followed the eagles through nesting seasons, hatchings and setbacks.

Witnesses spotted an eagle fighting two subadult eagles near Big Bear Lake on July 17, and wildlife officials later determined it was Jackie. She was found weak, underweight and unable to fly. The Ojai Raptor Center said the encounter likely left her grounded, but her medical problems appeared to extend well beyond injuries from the fight — the center believed she had probably been sick for some time before the confrontation. Subsequent testing revealed she was suffering from severe anemia and kidney inflammation. She later received a blood transfusion from another eagle at a Bakersfield zoo, and her red blood cell levels fluctuated over the following weeks before crashing again in the days before her death.

Her remains have been turned over to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In a statement, the raptor center said it was “heartbroken” and called caring for Jackie “an extraordinary privilege.” Friends of Big Bear Valley asked fans to be gentle with themselves and with the teams who treated her, writing on Facebook, “Soar free Jackie.”

Over the years, Jackie raised chicks with two different mates in the same nest atop a Jeffrey pine tree overlooking Big Bear Lake — first with a male eagle known as Mr. B, and later with Shadow, who arrived in 2018. The pair successfully fledged six eaglets together, including two, Sandy and Luna, that hatched earlier this year and recently left the nest on their own.

Jackie’s death comes weeks after conservationists announced they had raised more than $10 million to protect her habitat from development, ensuring the site will remain a sanctuary for eagles and other wildlife regardless of what happens at the nest next.

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