For the second time in as many years, the Big Bear Valley bald eagle power couple of Jackie and Shadow, followed by thousands of social media fans, have three eggs in their nest, watchers confirmed Tuesday evening.
The conservation group Friends of Big Bear Valley, responsible for webcams that provide “Truman Show”-like 24-hour eagle access, posted footage of the third egg’s arrival around 5:45 p.m.
The clip had garnered more than 280,000 views as of Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m very excited and a little bit surprised,” said Sandy Steers, executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley. “Last year, it happened for the first time, and it’s so rare to have her lay three eggs again.”
Jackie, who turns 13 this spring, puffed up her feathers, drooped her wings, bore down and released her latest egg, according to the group.
The egg was the third delivered in a week’s span in the couple’s snow-covered nest at Big Bear Lake. Their home sits 145 feet up from ground level in a Jeffrey pine.
Shadow, soon to turn 11, was with Jackie in the nest but left about 10 minutes before the egg-laying process began, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley.
The couple’s recent efforts breed an important question for eagle fans: Will the eggs hatch?
When it comes to parenthood, recent years have been unkind to Shadow and Jackie.
In 2024, the pair similarly laid three eggs for the first time. None of the trio hatched despite Jackie guarding that clutch for 62 hours during an unrelenting snowstorm.
“I don’t know if it’s fair to say the odds are stacked against them, but for eagles, in general, only 50% of the eggs hatch,” Steers said. “They have to deal with the cold and high altitudes, which provide less oxygen for the eggs, which need to breathe.”
A year earlier, the eagles had two eggs eaten by ravens, though Steers believes Jackie and Shadow may have suspected something was wrong with the eggs.
Hope for eaglets sprung again when the two were seen mating in late December.
California’s bald eagles were nearly wiped out in the 1970s, but now there are more than 1,000 spread among 41 of the state’s 58 counties, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The national bird was removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species in 2007, though California still lists the creature as endangered.
As for the couple, Steers said Jackie and Shadow are incubating and taking care of the eggs. The incubation period was delayed a bit as Jackie waited to deliver all her eggs.
The pipping period, or anticipated time when the chicks are supposed to break free from their eggs, starts about 35 days from the time the first egg is laid. Steers believes a more realistic timeline is 38 to 40 days until the first one may hatch, due to the delayed incubation.
Steers said she hadn’t seen the statistics for how many people viewed the latest egg delivery live but has had as many as 40,000 during previous events.
“We had many people who watch the livecam tell us they connect with the eagles,” Steers said. “They find themselves doing a lot of things that Jackie and Shadow do, which is getting along, working together and taking care of each other.
“Plus,” Steers added, “it gives them something to look at besides the dark stuff on the internet.”
The post A second chance at triplets for Big Bear bald eagles Jackie and Shadow appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
