{"id":838339,"date":"2025-04-01T16:13:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T21:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/01\/the-internets-favorite-bald-eagles-jackie-and-shadow-just-had-hatchlings\/"},"modified":"2025-04-01T16:13:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T21:13:45","slug":"the-internets-favorite-bald-eagles-jackie-and-shadow-just-had-hatchlings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/01\/the-internets-favorite-bald-eagles-jackie-and-shadow-just-had-hatchlings\/","title":{"rendered":"The internet\u2019s favorite bald eagles, Jackie and Shadow, just had hatchlings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jackie and Shadow, a beloved bald eagle<\/a> pair in Big Bear Lake Forest, a hundred miles northeast of Los Angeles, welcomed two new chicks<\/a> into the world, one at around 4 a.m. on March 4 and the other at 11:36 p.m. on March 3. The world is still waiting to see if another eaglet emerges from the couple\u2019s third egg.<\/p>\n

“So, all of us are just crying tears of joy for eagle babies in the middle of the night?” commented one Facebook user<\/a> on a video of the hatchlings posted by the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit launched a live feed of the eagle nest<\/a> in 2015\u2014and these bald eagle mates have since become an internet sensation, says FOBBV Executive Director Sandy Steers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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(3 myths about bald eagles you may have thought were true<\/i><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

As time went on \u201cpeople got attached to Jackie and Shadow,\u201d she says\u2014not to mention their unique personalities as they went about their daily lives in a 145-foot tall Jeffrey pine tree.<\/p>\n

Steers says she often hears people say that Jackie and Shadow argue just like they do with their spouses. \u201cThey’re comparing themselves, seeing the connection between themselves and nature,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even more relatable was the birds\u2019 recent difficulty in having hatchlings. That may be why some 71,928 people\u2014a crowd wouldn\u2019t even fit into Dodger Stadium\u2014were watching the nest cam the morning the second hatchling arrived.<\/p>\n

A new hope for healthy chicks<\/h2>\n

Jackie and Shadow’s saga is certainly compelling enough to hold an audience. Their first clutch of eggs as a couple produced a single healthy chick, Spirit, on March 3, 2022. But the following two years were sorrowful ones: Two eggs were produced in 2023 but were eaten by ravens. Then in 2024 there were three eggs but none hatched, possibly because of extreme cold or low oxygen, Steers thought.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bob Mulvihill<\/a>, ornithologist at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh says this is \u201cwithin the limits of what you might expect form a young mating pair.\u201d<\/p>\n

(What is a bald eagle? Here’s what to know about these birds<\/i><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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Jackie leans down to feed her two new chicks, which arrived on March 3 and March 4. Bald eagle couples are both active parents, taking turns feeding and protecting their young.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Photograph By FOBBV – Friends of Big Bear Vall<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

All seems to be going well with the new chicks so far\u2014and though a happy ending is never guaranteed in nature, Mulvihill adds that there\u2019s reason to hope that this year they may \u201cmanage to raise all three out of the nest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eagles are long-lived birds, and \u201cthey\u2019re in it for the long haul,\u201d Mulvihill says. \u201cThey have a low annual reproductive out but over the course of their lifetime they more than replace themselves in the population.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the thrill of watching a live cam like this one, Mulhivill gets it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It is at once heartening and wonderful and frightening and terrible to watch anything like this live, because in a moment it can go bad in a completely natural way,” he says. But that’s how the wild world works.<\/p>\n

How long does it take for eagles to hatch?<\/h2>\n

It was on January\u00a022, just over five weeks ago, that Jackie laid the first egg of 2025. The second came on January 25 and the third on January 28.<\/p>\n

Nest cam watchers finally spotted a pip\u2014or the crack that means hatching has begun\u2014in the first egg on the afternoon of March 2, and the second about 20 hours later on March 3. (Coincidentally, this was also the birthday of the pair\u2019s last hatchling, Spirit<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a lot of energy for them to pip the eggshell and then actually crack the rest so they can hatch,\u201d says Lori Arent<\/a>, interim director at the Raptor Center of the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

By the afternoon of March 4, watchers were hoping for glimpses of the gray, downy chicks whenever Shadow and Jackie stood up to check them or feed them tiny bits of fish.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI saw one of them take some food,\u201d Arent<\/a> said after watching the live feed. \u201cThey\u2019re acting very typically for eaglets of their age at this point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

What happens next?<\/h2>\n

Both parents in a bald eagle coupling are known to take an active role<\/a> in rearing their chicks\u2014taking turns sitting on the eggs, delivering food, and keeping predators away.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re taking little bits of fish now but soon, Arent says, but as the chicks get older \u201ctheir appetites are going to increase dramatically and it\u2019s going to take both the parents hunting in order to bring them enough food,\u201d so in time \u201cyou may not see them at the nest site at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Feathers don\u2019t appear on bald eagle chicks for about 24 days<\/a>. Chicks begin to fly at about 10 to 12 weeks<\/a>\u00a0and permanently leave the nest a month later.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Enjoy the quiet, fuzzy moments while you can, Jackie and Shadow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jackie and Shadow, a beloved bald eagle pair in Big Bear Lake Forest, a hundred miles northeast of Los Angeles, welcomed two new chicks into the world, one at around 4 a.m. on March 4 and the other at 11:36 p.m. on March 3. The world is still waiting to see if another eaglet emerges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":838340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[528,1979],"tags":[5250,14920],"class_list":{"0":"post-838339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-favorite","8":"category-internets","9":"tag-favorite","10":"tag-internets"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}