Big Bear bald eagles Jackie and Shadow lose eggs after raid by ravens. 😧😧
The winter nesting season took a heartbreaking turn on Jan. 30 atop a Jeffrey pine in the San Bernardino Mountains, where Big Bear’s famous bald eagles, Jackie and Shadow, lost both of their freshly laid eggs.
According to live footage from the Friends of Big Bear Valley Nest Cam, with the nest sitting unattended for more than three hours, at around 3:30 p.m. a raven swooped in, pecking the eggs repeatedly. One egg—already believed to be cracked earlier in the day—was lifted and breached, and the second was attacked moments later.
Bald Eagles across the U.S: A bigger comeback story
While Jackie and Shadow captivate audiences locally, they’re also part of one of America’s largest wildlife recovery success stories.
Once on the brink of extinction — with just 417 nesting pairs counted in 1963 — bald eagles were devastated by habitat loss, illegal killing, and the pesticide DDT, which caused eggshells so thin they often collapsed during incubation.
A national push reversed the trend:
- DDT ban in 1972
- Endangered Species Act protections in 1978
- Removal from the endangered list in 2007
The results have stunned scientists. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now estimates 316,700 bald eagles in the lower 48 states — a population four times larger than in 2009.
