Big Bear's eagle cam gets the New Yorker treatment — but this year's story was hard to watch

The Big Bear Valley eagle cam has earned its share of national attention over the years, but this summer it landed in an unlikely place: the pages of The New Yorker. A staff writer published a feature essay reflecting on what he calls an "aquiline epic" — a year that brought joyful fledglings, a land-protection victory, and ultimately the death of beloved eagle Jackie[1].

The cam itself was installed in 2015 by Friends of Big Bear Valley (F.O.B.B.V.), a local nonprofit focused on wildlife protection around the lake[1]. What began as a quiet conservation tool has grown into a global phenomenon, drawing as many as 100,000 simultaneous viewers during peak moments like hatching and fledging[1].

This season brought genuine highs before the heartbreak. Two eaglets — Luna and Sandy — successfully fledged. Sandy was named in honor of Sandy Steers, F.O.B.B.V.'s longtime executive director, who died in February[1]. And in July, F.O.B.B.V. announced it had raised enough money to protect the land near the nest from the proposed Moon Camp residential-housing development, which would have sat less than a mile from the nesting pine[1]. The perspectives of the Moon Camp developers and landowners on that land-protection deal could not be confirmed.

Then came the loss. Jackie fell ill after a fight with visiting eagles over fish, was captured, and transferred to the Ojai Raptor Center, where veterinarians found she was suffering from severe anemia. Despite a CT scan and a blood donation from an eagle in Bakersfield, she died on the night of August 9th[1]. The grief that followed was real — but so was the fallout. The Ojai Raptor Center was bombarded with harassing phone calls, and some cam followers spread conspiracy theories accusing the center's staff of manipulating information to solicit donations[1]. The center's experience in the aftermath of Jackie's death is a side of the eagle-cam community the New Yorker essay touches on, even if the center's own voice is largely absent from the broader coverage.

Since Jackie's death, a four-year-old banded eagle named KD1 — also called Kaydee — has been spending increasing time with Shadow at the nest. Kaydee appears to be female and of nesting age, raising the possibility that the cam's next chapter could begin as soon as the upcoming season[1].

For Big Bear Valley residents, the cam is both a source of community pride and a reminder that the eagles share their mountain home with a busy recreation area — and with hundreds of thousands of online observers whose investment in that nest is anything but detached. Whether the next nesting season brings a new family or another chapter of uncertainty, the cameras will be rolling.

To follow updates, visit F.O.B.B.V. at friendsofbigbearvalley.org. The live cam feed is available on YouTube; nesting season typically begins in late fall.