Jackie the bald eagle died in the early hours of Monday after more than three weeks of intensive medical care at Ojai Raptor Center. Despite oxygen therapy, supportive treatment, round-the-clock monitoring and a blood transfusion, her condition kept getting worse.
That death closes the latest chapter in one of Big Bear's most watched wildlife stories. Jackie and Shadow were followed for years through a livestream camera, and the pair became known for raising eaglets in the area while viewers tracked their daily lives in real time.
Jackie was transferred to Ojai on July 17 after the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation's San Dimas Raptor Rescue team responded to the Dana Point Park area near Big Bear Lake, where she had been involved in a fight with two subadult eagles. She was found to be very sick, with anemia and a mystery illness that drove her packed cell volume far below average.
Even with intensive care from the veterinary team and consulting specialists, Jackie remained critically ill. Ojai Raptor Center said her condition continued to deteriorate over the past several days, and that she was receiving oxygen therapy, supportive treatment and around-the-clock monitoring in an intensive care unit when she died.
For viewers who had followed her for years, the loss lands harder because Jackie was more than a bird on a camera. Friends of Big Bear Valley estimated she lived about 14 years, and she mothered Simba, Spirit, Sunny, Gizmo, Luna and Sandy to fledging with Shadow. The names were chosen by students at Big Bear Elementary School, and Sandy was named after Sandy Steers, the longtime FOBBV executive director who helped launch the livestream cameras and died earlier this year.
Jackie's remains were transferred into the care of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. What still has no answer is the illness that drove her blood count so low in the first place, and that gap is now the unfinished part of a story that had already held the attention of Big Bear for years.
