Big Bear's Jackie the bald eagle lays another egg
Jackie the bald eagle watches over her two eggs (Photo via Facebook: Friends of Big Bear Valley and Big Bear Eagle Nest Cam)
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, Calif. - Jackie and Shadow, the bald eagle couple in Big Bear known for their popular nest livestream, are expecting another eaglet after Jackie laid a second egg over the weekend.
Unlike her first egg of the season, Jackie's latest egg was laid while the cameras were down, during a winter storm that swept through the area on Saturday.
"It would seem that this time she did not want the world watching her labor and egg-laying process," a post in the Friends of Big Bear Valley and Big Bear Eagle Nest Cam Facebook group read. "Somehow the cameras went down during that part of the storm. When they came back up, she looked a bit bedraggled, like she does when she’s just gone through labor, and when she moved aside for the camera to see, there were two beautiful eggs."
Jackie laid her first egg of the year on Jan. 11. After laying her second egg, Jackie sat with them in the nest for nearly 27 hours, before letting her partner Shadow take over egg warming duties, according to another Facebook post.
Jackie and her partner Shadow had previously welcomed chicks in 2019, with one of the chicks dying after only six weeks. Similarly, just one of the eaglets Jackie hatched the year before in 2018 made it past eight weeks.
According to Bridgewater State University, female eagles incubate their eggs for approximately 35 days.
The live stream of Jackie and Shadow's nest can be seen here.