NBC 7’s Marianne Kushi spoke with executive director of the Friends of Big Bear Valley about the beloved eagles.
Sure, pop star Taylor Swift and her Super Bowl champ boyfriend Travis Kelce have been basking in the spotlight as one of the most-watched couples around, but those two lovebirds are getting some competition from an adoring pair of bald eagles named Jackie and Shadow nesting 145 feet up a pine tree near Big Bear Lake.
The attention they're getting has skyrocketed while they await the hatching of three eggs.
Although Jackie has laid several eggs during the six years they've been together, only two have survived. This year is the first that Jackie has laid three eggs during a single nesting period.
Watch the Big Bear Eagle Live Nest Camera below
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The majestic birds have accrued more and more loyal fans ever since Sandy Steers, executive director of the Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV), a nonprofit, environmental education organization, installed a 24-hour eagle cam in 2015.
Viewers can listen to and watch the antics of the delightful, rambunctious couple through the organization's YouTube and Facebook pages, where social media users can keep up with the constant comments posted by their ever-growing fan base.
"I think people are connecting to them because it reminds them of their own life or something in their life"
Sandy Steers, executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley
People are mesmerized watching Jackie and Shadow, who now boast 668,000 Facebook followers.
Steers believes people are connecting with them "because it reminds them of their own life or something in their life, and they like to see that happening."
You can watch the pair "kiss" when Shadow's beak touches Jackie's, or hear them squawk at each other when they take turns sitting on the nest.
It's easy to anthropomorphize the eagles, but Steers, who has been observing them for years, said that they "do have emotional responses to things that are different than other times."
For example, Steers said, that in previous years she's seen "Shadow stand and look over broken eggs and just stand there and it cannot be anything except an emotion."
Steers, a biologist, became enchanted with bald eagles in 2012 when she learned from U.S. Forest Service rangers about a tiny eaglet hatched in a nest at Big Bear.
"I stood out there for hours every day — even in the snow, no matter what was going on — because I wanted to see what happened"
Sandy Steers
"I stood out there for hours every day — even in the snow, no matter what was going on — because I just wanted to see what happened," Steers said. "The whole thing was fascinating to me."
That eaglet would be named Jackie. Yes, the one now watching over her clutch of freshly laid eggs.
The bald eagles are amazing creatures, with Jackie and Shadow providing proof as the pair weather freezing snowstorms in their six-foot-wide nest, taking turns sitting on their precious brood 24 hours a day.
Each bird is protected by 7,000 or so feathers "knitted" together that keep them and their eggs warm, even when temperatures dip below freezing and the wind is blowing.
Steers doesn't know what the chances are that all three eggs will hatch but said, "We're just going to keep our fingers crossed and watch what happens."
And so will Jackie and Shadow's loyal fans.
