(VIDEO) Beloved Big Bear Bald Eagle Jackie’s Anemia Worsens as Blood Cell Levels Drop Again, Vets Now Reveal

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. — Jackie, the internet-famous bald eagle whose nest has been watched live by millions of viewers for years, has suffered a setback in her recovery, with veterinarians reporting Monday that her anemia has worsened after weeks of treatment at a Southern California raptor center.

The Ojai Raptor Center, which has been treating Jackie since she was rescued more than two weeks ago, said new bloodwork showed her packed cell volume, a measurement of red blood cells in the bloodstream, had dropped to 13%, down from 17% reported in the center’s previous update. “Today’s bloodwork brought some difficult news,” the center wrote in a statement posted to Facebook.

A setback after signs of progress

The drop marks a reversal from earlier signs of improvement. Just days earlier, the center had reported Jackie’s packed cell volume climbing to 17%, a level veterinarians described as encouraging even though they were hoping to see it eventually rise above 30%. Instead, Monday’s bloodwork showed the opposite trend, prompting the veterinary team to escalate its response.

The center said additional advanced diagnostic testing was now underway, along with expedited laboratory work, as staff try to better understand what is driving the decline and determine next steps in Jackie’s treatment. “At this stage, we do not have further answers to share, but we promise to keep you informed as soon as we have meaningful new information,” the center said.

How Jackie ended up in intensive care

Jackie, who is one half of a bald eagle pair whose nest overlooking Big Bear Lake has been streamed around the clock for years, was found on the ground near the lake roughly two and a half weeks ago after a fight with two other eagles. Veterinarians determined at the time that she was already anemic with inflammation affecting her kidneys before the altercation, a condition they believe left her more vulnerable to the attack, though the underlying cause has not been determined.

Shortly after her rescue, Jackie received a life-saving blood transfusion from a fellow female eagle named Spirit, a resident of the CALM Zoo in Bakersfield. Her condition has fluctuated in the weeks since, with the raptor center at times describing her as stable but critical, and caregivers noting small positive signs along the way, including that she had been eating and displaying what staff described as a bit of her characteristic attitude.

A bird known to millions

Jackie and her mate, Shadow, have become two of the most closely watched wild animals in the country through the Big Bear Eagle Nest Cam, a livestream run by the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley that offers a round-the-clock window into the pair’s nest in the San Bernardino Mountains. The organization’s live camera project was launched in 2015 with help from the late Sandy Steers, a wildlife advocate whose efforts helped turn the eagle pair into a global phenomenon.

The couple became parents again this year, welcoming two eaglets in early April that the organization later named Sandy and Luna, a nod to Steers’ legacy. As of Aug. 1, both chicks appeared to have fully fledged, according to updates from the nest cam, even as their mother remained hospitalized more than 80 miles away in Ojai.

This year’s nesting season was not without earlier setbacks of its own. Jackie and Shadow lost their first two eggs of the season in January after a raven attack destroyed them while the pair was away from the nest. The couple persevered, with Jackie laying a new egg in late February that ultimately hatched into Sandy and Luna in April.

A community rallies around the eagles’ habitat

Jackie’s illness comes amid a broader wave of public support for the Big Bear eagle population. Friends of Big Bear Valley recently completed a $10 million fundraising campaign to purchase nearly 63 acres of land near the lake, known as Moon Camp, in order to place it under permanent conservation protection and block a proposed development project. More than 25,000 individual donations helped push the campaign toward its goal ahead of a July 31 deadline, with a $5.5 million contribution from Anna and Greg Brockman, the OpenAI president, ultimately closing the gap.

What comes next

The Ojai Raptor Center, which has referred to Jackie internally by her patient number, 26-519, has asked the public and members of the media to respect the space needed by her veterinary and rehabilitation teams as they continue working through her case. Once Jackie has recovered enough to be released, wildlife officials have said she will be returned to her home range in Big Bear, near the nest she has shared with Shadow for years.

For now, her care team says the focus remains on stabilizing her condition and identifying the cause of her worsening anemia through the additional testing now underway. No timeline has been given for when results from that testing, including specialized screening for possible toxin exposure, are expected to be available, with center staff cautioning that some results could take several weeks to come back.

The uncertainty has left millions of followers of the Big Bear eagle cam anxiously awaiting further updates on a bird whose ups and downs, from lost eggs to a life-saving transfusion, have played out publicly for years. Friends of Big Bear Valley and the Ojai Raptor Center have both indicated they will continue posting updates on Jackie’s condition as new information becomes available in the days ahead.