An eaglet in the nest of Big Bear eagles’ Jackie and Shadow’s 2026 nesting season is gradually making its debut.
Approximately at 10 a.m., Friday, April 3, a 24/7 livestream feed operated by the environmental nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley captured movement of the right egg, one of two eggs in the nest. The Friends of Big Bear Valley’s Facebook page publicly announced a few minutes later that a chick had made its first pip — a small hole in the eggshell signaling the start of hatching.
“Yesterday afternoon, evening, and throughout the night, we heard little chirps coming from the chick. This indicates that the chick was able to break the internal membrane and took its first breath of air,” the Facebook post read.
Jennifer Voisard, the Friends of Big Bear Valley’s media and website manager, said the process can take 24 to 48 hours to complete a hatch.
“It is not like the cartoons where they just hatch, and a head pops out,” Voisard said, adding that the eagle chick has a lot of work ahead before joining its parents in the outside world.
“They have to work through to a membrane and then the outer shell,” Voisard said.
The start of the 2026 nesting season began with heartbreak as two earlier laid eggs were breached by ravens. But the cycle of life continued. Almost a month after the breach, Jackie laid a third egg. Days later, Jackie welcomed another.
Within an hour on Friday, the Facebook post announcing that an egg started to hatch had collected close to 20,000 likes, 1,200 comments, and was shared over 1,700 times.
The livestream draws thousands of viewers each day from fans nationwide and around the globe.
Friends of Big Bear Valley is currently promoting a fundraiser organized by the nonprofit conservancy, San Bernardino Mountains Land Trust, to purchase the land slated for development, only a mile from the eagles’ nest. The conservancy group has negotiated a $10 million deal to buy the land from the property’s owners, Chicago-based RCK Properties. The deadline to raise the funds is July 31. The Friends group has promoted the website for donating funds on its own online page, which can be found at savemooncamp.org. As of Friday afternoon, April 3, $1.6 million has been raised.