Bald eagles generally have one clutch \u2014 the group of eggs laid in each nesting attempt \u2014 per season. But a replacement clutch is possible if the eggs don\u2019t make it through the early incubation process, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley<\/a>.<\/p>\n The nonprofit runs a popular YouTube livestream<\/a> of the nest and Jackie and Shadow.<\/p>\n In January, nest watchers were saddened to see the eggs were breached by ravens. But because the eggs were lost so early in the season, Jenny Voisard, the organization\u2019s media manager, told LAist they\u2019re hopeful there\u2019s still time for another clutch.<\/p>\n Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n Jackie is typically fertile and able to lay eggs January through April each year, according to the organization. Several years ago, Jackie laid a second clutch after the eggs were broken or breached by ravens.<\/p>\n Voisard said that while there\u2019s no guarantees in nature, people are hopeful this isn\u2019t the end of Big Bear\u2019s nesting season.<\/p>\n \u201cChicks are always welcome and we love them so much, but we love Jackie and Shadow,\u201d she said. \u201cWe’re going to remain optimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n What happened to the eggs?<\/p>\n Jackie laid the first egg of the season<\/a> on Jan. 23 and the second egg<\/a> on Jan. 26 as thousands of fans watched online.<\/p>\n By Jan. 30, viewers noticed that Jackie and Shadow had left their nest unattended for hours at a time.<\/p>\n Friends of Big Bear Valley wondered if the eagles were practicing delayed incubation, and whether a third egg was on the way for the third season in a row<\/a>, according to Voisard. The Big Bear bald eagles have practiced delayed incubation in previous seasons<\/a>, which is when they don\u2019t incubate full time until the last egg is laid, usually three days apart.<\/p>\n Jackie with the first and second egg of the season in January.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Friends of Big Bear Valley<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n YouTube<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n But that wasn\u2019t the case this time.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the raven was able to get so close, we had suspicions,\u201d Voisard said. \u201cEarlier in the day, we were examining and rewinding and looking at one of the eggs because it wasn’t looking right to us.\u201d<\/p>\n The organization zoomed in with the livestream camera and confirmed an egg was cracked. A raven came back to the nest again later that day and breached both eggs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that the egg was broken could have signaled to the raven to come,\u201d Voisard said.<\/p>\n More bald eagles have been seen in the Big Bear area, and the animals\u2019 territorial activity could have also contributed to Jackie and Shadow\u2019s time away from their nest, according to the organization.<\/p>\n When Friends of Big Bear Valley announced the loss of the eggs on its Facebook page<\/a>, which has more than 1 million followers, fans flooded the comments to share their sadness about the situation<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMy heart hurts for Jackie and Shadow,\u201d a Facebook user wrote in a comment<\/a>. \u201cDo Eagles have feelings? Are they sad? Are they grieving? Are the[y] angry at the ravens?\u201d<\/p>\n Voisard stressed that the ravens didn\u2019t do anything wrong, nor did Jackie and Shadow. It\u2019s just part of nature, she said.<\/p>\n Another Facebook comment asked why Friends of Big Bear Valley didn\u2019t move the livestream camera around to try and scare the raven off.<\/p>\n While the organization understands the instinct to want to help the eagles, Voisard said humans are not allowed to intervene during nesting season.<\/p>\n What about past seasons?<\/p>\n A second clutch is possible if the eggs don\u2019t make it through the early incubation process.<\/p>\n In 2021, Jackie laid the first egg on Jan. 6. It was destroyed by a raven the next day, according to organization records<\/a>. Jackie laid the second egg Jan. 9 that year, and the third on Jan. 13. Both were broken or eaten by ravens.<\/p>\n But about a month later, Jackie had a second clutch of eggs.<\/p>\n She laid the first egg on Feb. 8, 2021 and the second three days later. One chick didn\u2019t survive the hatching process, while the other egg wasn\u2019t viable after more than 50 days of incubation.<\/p>\n In 2023, Jackie laid two eggs in mid-January that were both breached by ravens on March 7, according to organization records.<\/p>\n Voisard said Friends of Big Bear Valley volunteers were curious as to whether the eagle couple would lay another clutch that year. They came to believe later that it was too late in the season.<\/p>\n Looking ahead<\/p>\n The eagles have withdrawn from incubation and have been spending more time away from the nest, according to the nonprofit.<\/p>\n Voisard said the withdrawal was a \u201creally good thing\u201d that may open the door to more eggs.<\/p>\n For Jackie\u2019s hormones to reset, the bald eagle duo need to go back to bonding and working on their nest, which Friends of Big Bear Valley refers to as the birds’ \u201cnestorations.\u201d It typically includes deliveries of sticks and fluff to furnish their long-time nest, which is toward the top of a Jeffrey pine tree overlooking Big Bear Lake.<\/p>\n Big Bear’s resident bald eagle couple, Jackie and Shadow, in their nest overlooking Big Bear Lake on Saturday.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Friends of Big Bear Valley<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n YouTube<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n The duo did some of that work Sunday, which the organization said is a hopeful sign bonding and nesting behaviors may be returning. Shadow, or the \u201cStickman,\u201d as some fans call him, has brought at least three new sticks to the nest since the eggs were lost, according to organization records<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jackie and Shadow have also been heard mating in the area, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jackie and Shadow: Hope remains for new life in Big Bear\u2019s famous bald eagle nest After Jackie and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[47266,203461,214743,203459,79,201],"class_list":["post-460118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-bald-eagles","tag-eagle-eggs","tag-egg-incubation","tag-friends-of-big-bear-valley","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770677211_726_.png\")
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