Jackie, the California bald eagle and internet sensation, dies after illness
Jackie, the bald eagle who became an internet sensation and a symbol of the species’ recovery in California, died on Monday after being treated for an illness at a veterinary facility, her caretakers announced.
For more than a decade, nature lovers watched via an online video feed as Jackie and her partner Shadow tended to their nest each year atop trees near Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles.
The nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley installed the nest camera in 2015 and documented the successes and failures of each breeding season. In 2024, Jackie diligently sat on her eggs for more than two and a half days after a winter storm blanketed the nest with snow.
The Los Angeles county department of parks and recreation’s San Dimas raptor rescue team found Jackie on July 17 after reports the bird had been involved in a fight with two other eagles and was ill.
Jackie had been receiving medical treatment for three weeks at the Ojai raptor centre, where she was treated for ailments including anaemia. Despite undergoing a blood transfusion and oxygen therapy, her condition worsened, and the centre announced her death on Monday.
Having access to a live cam to see the nesting first hand is very powerful. It brings people in on an emotional level
“We know this news will be deeply felt by the many thousands of people around the world who have followed her journey, hoped alongside us, prayed for her, and supported the people caring for her,” the centre said. “Our team is heartbroken. It has been an extraordinary privilege to care for her.”
The California department of fish and wildlife is caring for the remains.
Among those who enjoyed monitoring Jackie’s nests from afar was biologist Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society in central California. While his group was not involved with the Big Bear eagles, he sees their breeding as emblematic of the comeback the species has made in the state over the past decades.
American bald eagles teetered on the brink of extinction until the pesticide DDT was banned in the 1970s and other protections were established, leading the species to rebound and be removed from the federal endangered list.
“You want to see a success story like that,” Sorenson said on Monday. “Having access to a live cam to see the nesting firsthand is very powerful. It brings people in on an emotional level.”