Jackie and Shadow
Jackie and Shadow are a wild female and male bald eagle couple who reside near Big Bear Lake in San Bernardino County, California. Their attempts to hatch and raise offspring have been live-streamed by Friends of Big Bear Valley since 2018.
History
Bald eagles from points farther north, such as Idaho or Canada, migrate to Big Bear Valley, but most do not stay year-round. San Bernardino National Forest rangers discovered in 2012 that this area had become nesting territory for eagles. As of 2020, Jackie and Shadow were the only year-round bald eagle residents at Big Bear Lake.Jackie, believed to be the first eaglet hatched in Big Bear Valley, came to the public's attention in 2017, when she and her mate took over an abandoned nest beside a live-stream camera installed by Friends of Big Bear Valley. Shadow came to the public's attention one year later, when he replaced Jackie's mate at that nest. The nest itself is above ground in a Jeffrey pine in the National Forest near Fawnskin. As the tree is near a parking lot, picnic area, and campsite, the Forest Service closes these facilities during nesting season each year, only reopening the area once the offspring have fledged.
Jackie and Shadow's first successful chick hatched in March 2022. She was later named Spirit.
Jackie and Shadow's live-stream gained significant attention in 2023, when they attempted to hatch eggs despite multiple atmospheric rivers that brought of snow to the area. Jackie and Shadow had no surviving offspring that year or the following one, and by February 2024, Jackie and Shadow had laid 14+ eggs together, five of which hatched, with two or three of the eaglets surviving into adulthood.
In 2025, the pair successfully hatched three eggs, but one eaglet died during a storm a few days later. The two surviving eaglets were later named Sunny and Gizmo. The names, chosen from 54,000 submissions, were voted on by students at Big Bear Elementary School. The eaglet that died was posthumously named Misty, after Kathi Misterly, a Friends of Big Bear Valley volunteer who had recently lost her life to cancer.