{"id":592752,"date":"2026-04-08T05:12:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T05:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/592752\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T05:12:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T05:12:32","slug":"sibling-bonking-and-upcoming-naming-contest-chick-ing-in-on-big-bears-famous-bald-eagle-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/592752\/","title":{"rendered":"Sibling \u2018bonking\u2019 and upcoming naming contest: Chick-ing in on Big Bear\u2019s famous bald eagle nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that celebrity bald eagles Jackie and Shadow<\/a> have welcomed two new chicks<\/a>, tens of thousands of fans are regularly tuning into the livestream of the nest overlooking Big Bear Lake for a peak at the fuzzy eaglets.<\/p>\n

The chicks, which hatched Saturday night and Easter Sunday morning, will be referred to as Chick 1 and Chick 2 for now, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley<\/a>, the nonprofit that runs the popular YouTube livestream.<\/p>\n

The eaglets are still gaining strength in their first few days of life \u2014 learning to move neck muscles and pick up pieces of meat from mama Jackie and papa Shadow\u2019s beaks. Those early feedings can be challenging or awkward, and the organization often refers to the chicks as \u201cbobbleheads\u201d at this stage.<\/p>\n

Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n

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Some fans worried about the second chick struggling to hold its head and getting enough food, but both eaglets are doing \u201cgreat,\u201d according to Jenny Voisard, Friends of Big Bear Valley\u2019s media manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrust the process, trust the eagles, and settle in and enjoy these cute little fur balls because they change every day,\u201d Voisard said. \u201cAnd you don’t want to miss this time, because they’re just so precious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sibling ‘bonking’<\/p>\n

The eaglets are tiny \u2014 each weighs about a few ounces \u2014 in a nest that\u2019s estimated to be<\/a> 6-feet deep. The nest sits near the top of a Jeffrey pine tree on the north side of Big Bear Lake.<\/p>\n

Chicks multiply in size over the first weeks and months of life, establishing a pecking order along the way, according to the nonprofit.<\/p>\n

Viewers may notice Chick 1 and Chick 2 headbutting each other, a sibling rivalry behavior that the organization calls \u201cbonking.\u201d Voisard said it\u2019s \u201ctotally normal\u201d in the nest, especially since the chicks can\u2019t see very well at this stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won’t last too long,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is plenty of food for them to eat, and so they shouldn’t be in competition with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season\u2019s trio of chicks participated in bonking<\/a> for a while. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Voisard said Sunny and Gizmo<\/a> went on to be \u201cbest friends\u201d before they flew away from the nest last June<\/a>. One of last season\u2019s chicks, which the nonprofit named \u201cMisty,\u201d didn\u2019t survive a winter storm within weeks of hatching<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Jackie and Shadow, everything now revolves around stocking up food and making sure the chicks are safe, warm and dry in the nest, Voisard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do a very good job, and we’ve been seeing fish deliveries and other prey the last couple of days and the chicks are hungrily gobbling it up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Upcoming naming contest<\/p>\n

Now that the chicks have hatched, many people are wondering what their names will be \u2014 and offering suggestions. The nonprofit said it\u2019s seen hundreds of requests to name one of the chicks \u201cSandy\u201d in honor of Sandy Steers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Steers was an environmental advocate who helped launch the eagle livestream and the late executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley. She died in February, a few weeks before the pair of eggs were laid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the organization said that\u2019s not what Steers would have wanted. Voisard said Steers loved having Big Bear third-grade students select the eaglets\u2019 names, and Friends of Big Bear Valley plans to keep the tradition going.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working on a way to honor, memorialize Sandy in something that\u2019s more permanent,\u201d Voisard said.<\/p>\n

The naming privileges are usually given to the third-graders because they study bald eagles in school, but last year was a bit of an exception. The fourth- and fifth -grade classes were invited to help select names because Jackie and Shadow didn\u2019t have chicks in 2023 and 2024<\/a>, when the students would’ve been in third-grade.<\/p>\n

“We want to make sure we’re doing it the way that [Steers] wanted to do it, and those kids live for being able to do this,\u201d Voisard said. \u201cIt’s a right of passage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends of Big Bear Valley is expected to launch a naming contest<\/a> where the public can submit ideas for this season\u2019s eaglets, and the details will be announced online<\/a>. A random list of names will be pulled from the submissions and shared with Big Bear third-grade students for the final vote.<\/p>\n

Chick 1 and Chick 2 will then be officially named based on the results of the students\u2019 ballots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that celebrity bald eagles Jackie and Shadow have welcomed two new chicks, tens of thousands of fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,289398,289399,91389,289396,289397,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-592752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-eagle-chicks","11":"tag-eaglets-hatched","12":"tag-friends-of-big-bear-valley","13":"tag-jackie-and-shadow","14":"tag-sandy-steers","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}