{"id":1012925,"date":"2026-08-20T14:24:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1012925\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:24:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:24:47","slug":"how-jackie-the-bald-eagle-found-more-loyal-fans-than-some-of-l-a-s-biggest-human-celebrities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1012925\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jackie the bald eagle found more loyal fans than some of L.A.s biggest human celebrities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, my colleague Lila Seidman was scrolling through her inbox when she came upon a wrenching message from a distraught reader pouring out her soul.<\/p>\n

\u201cJackie you were the HEART of the world! You united the world no matter what race, religion or politics you were, you gave us all HOPE!\u201d<\/p>\n

That stunning tribute was among nearly 200 she received, including one that read: \u201cBeloved Jackie showed us resilience and strength and the beauty of nature and how she stood for what we all want to believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Message after message delivered the kind of posthumous tributes we all (maybe secretly) aspire to receive, but know we\u2019ll never deserve.<\/p>\n

So, who was this Jackie? And what, exactly, did she stand for? Jackie never said. You see, she wasn\u2019t an actor, or a statesman, or even a social media self-help guru \u2014 exactly.<\/p>\n

Jackie was a bird.<\/p>\n

A bald eagle, to be exact, one of a breeding pair that shot to international stardom about a decade ago after a nonprofit in Big Bear Lake \u2014 a mountain town about 100 miles from Los Angeles \u2014 set up a webcam by their nest and started broadcasting their lives 24\/7.<\/p>\n

Like \u201cThe Truman Show\u201d with feathers.<\/p>\n

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Our celebrity obsession trained on two birds<\/p>\n

If you live in Los Angeles \u2014 the bizarre, beating heart of celebrity culture \u2014 you know how devoted people can get when it comes to their favorite stars. Tourists here pay top dollar to hop on buses and cruise past the closed gates, and occasional curbside trash bins, of famous people\u2019s homes.<\/p>\n

Still, even many jaded Angelenos couldn\u2019t predict the world\u2019s interest \u2014 some might say obsession \u2014 with Jackie and her mate, Shadow.<\/p>\n

But maybe we all should have seen it coming because their show had it all.<\/p>\n

\"Boat <\/p>\n

Boat captain Michael Marzell wears a T-shirt dedicated to saving resident eagles Jackie and Shadow while giving a boat tour around Big Bear Lake for people hoping to catch a glimpse of the eagles.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Set on a beautiful waterfront and surrounded by gorgeous mountains, it rolled out in classic soap opera style: romantic rivalries, fraught childbirth, a desperate and doomed fight to keep the kids alive through a terrifying blizzard, epic health struggles and, ultimately, the tragic death of the beloved matriarch.<\/p>\n

And the world couldn\u2019t get enough. The Facebook account of the nonprofit that set up the webcam, Friends of Big Bear Valley, has 1.3 million followers. Their YouTube channel has had more than 460 million views since 2019.<\/p>\n

Seidman, an environmental reporter<\/a> who has been writing about Jackie and Shadow for about a year, told me she was surprised that so many readers seemed to want to know more about the birds than human celebrities.<\/p>\n

Even Brad Pitt doesn\u2019t get such scrutiny<\/p>\n

One of the first stories she remembers writing was about a young bird \u2014 possibly a chick that had grown and left \u2014 returning to the eagle nest.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you imagine writing something like that about Brad Pitt?\u201d Seidman asked with a chuckle. \u201cThat his daughter visited him? I don\u2019t think that would be too significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as is so often the case in celebrity culture, the intense curiosity led to some dark places.<\/p>\n

In July, 14-year-old Jackie was found on the shore of the lake, underweight and disheveled after sparring with younger eagles. She was taken to a nonprofit wildlife rescue, the Ojai Raptor Center, where a team of veterinarians went to extraordinary lengths to try to help her.<\/p>\n

Despite exhaustive tests and exams, the vets still couldn\u2019t say precisely what was wrong.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when some of her online followers \u2014 like that crazy sibling who shows up to the family crisis having done their own research \u2014 got suspicious and started second-guessing the experts.<\/p>\n

The obsession turns dark<\/p>\n

Before long, the staff at the raptor center said they were wasting precious time batting down ridiculous conspiracy theories and social media posts with misleading, AI-generated images and videos.<\/p>\n

They faced \u201cconstant requests for information, repeated phone calls, unexpected visits, messages on their personal social media accounts, and, in some cases, contact at their private homes,\u201d according to a plea for understanding (and sanity) the staff posted on Aug. 4.<\/p>\n

When Jackie died about a week later, someone posted on X, \u201cOjai Raptor Center has some explaining to do. Just saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on the overwhelming outpouring of love for Jackie, there was obviously a beautiful side to her fame, Seidman said. Something that allowed so many people to connect and express profound feelings they might struggle to share with the people in their lives.<\/p>\n

Asked if Jackie\u2019s death means the story is over, Seidman laughed out loud and said, \u201cAbsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent days, a new female has been spotted in the eagle nest keeping Shadow company.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s, like, a third of his age,\u201d Seidman said. \u201cThis is still very L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top stories \"photo <\/a> <\/p>\n

(Illustration by Jim Cooke \/ Los Angeles Times; Source photos: Getty Images, Adobe Stock)<\/p>\n

How L.A. lost Hollywood<\/p>\n