Nearly a week after being rescued near Big Bear Lake, Jackie — one-half of a celebrity bald eagle couple — remains in critical condition as veterinarians continue to puzzle over the cause of her maladies. Back at the nest, Shadow is caring for their eaglets but may be spending time with a younger female.
Suffering from severe anemia and kidney inflammation, Jackie received a life-saving blood transfusion but is still in intensive care — with blood provided by Spirit, an eagle living at a Bakersfield zoo, according to the Ojai Raptor Center, where she’s receiving treatment.
Announced in an Instagram post Thursday, the center said the 14-year-old eagle’s kidney inflammation has improved. But they are still trying to understand the cause of her anemia. They’ve ruled out lead toxicity and the presence of objects like fishing hooks and weights. Photos accompanying the post show staff tending to the eagle, who appears massive on a medical table.
“The eagle continues to perch and eat, and there is slight improvement in her energy,” the center’s Eliza Cameron says in the post. “Her condition remains critical at this time, and this is not a straightforward case.”
For now, she’s receiving intensive treatment in the center’s urgent care unit, and her care team says it’s too soon to predict the outcome. The Ojai Raptor Center doesn’t refer to their patient as Jackie, but as bald eagle “26-519,” noting in an earlier post that they can’t be 100% sure of its identity but suspect it hails from the duo made famous by a nest livestream that draws thousands of viewers.
Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that runs the livestream, believes it is Jackie based on visual identification and the fact that the matriarch has been missing from her nest overlooking Big Bear Lake.
Weak and tired, Jackie was scooped up from the north shore of Big Bear Lake in the wee hours of Saturday by a team from the San Dimas Raptor Center. She was underweight, with disheveled feathers and feet caked with mud. A video taken shortly before her rescue showed Jackie sparring with two younger eagles, as she flipped on her back to ward them off with her talons.
Not permitted to care for bald eagles, the San Dimas team moved her to the Ojai facility later that day.
In her absence, Shadow is pulling double-duty, caring for two growing eaglets — Sandy and Luna — by feeding them and protecting their territory. The sudden absence of his mate of eight years has left many nest cam fans to wonder what’s next for the family.
Shadow — Jackie’s junior by two years — was spotted Wednesday with a subadult eagle on a favorite perch tree.
“It is difficult to be certain of which visiting eagle this was due to the distance, but it is possibly a 4+ year old female that has been hanging around and had the short battle with Jackie,” Friends of Big Bear Valley wrote in a Facebook post.
The nonprofit added that an eagle expert said it was unlikely that Shadow would “move on now” in light of his bond with Jackie, and isn’t expected to be looking for a mate “until his hormones kick in” in late December or early January.
“We do have to realize he is a wild and free eagle, and it is up to Shadow what direction he goes,” the post states.
The revelation of Shadow’s possible perch-cute spurred an array of emotions from the family’s devotees.
It upset some, with one commenter writing, “I’m sitting over here crying for Jackie and Shadow. And he’s off sniffing other feathers.”
Others appeared more understanding: “People need to realize these are eagles … and will do what instincts tell them to. And everything will be fine, regardless of what paths they each may take.”
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