Our (now official) national bird, the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), is a magnificent creature. It's a sea eagle, normally found near water. They mate for life and raise two to three chicks, normally, every year, tending them with devotion until the babies fledge and fly away.
What's neat about the nesting part is that some of the eagle nests have cameras on them - you can watch the babies being fed, cared for, and growing, live. One of them is in Big Bear, California.
Big Bear's beloved bald eagle couple, Jackie and Shadow, have welcomed eaglets into the world! You can watch live as the proud parents keep a close eye on their babies.
The first eaglet arrived Monday night, popping out of its shell shortly before 11:30 p.m. The special moment was captured live during the 11 p.m. newscast of ABC7 Eyewitness News.
The second chick hatched sometime in the overnight hours.
The third egg appeared to be hatching, as well, about 1 p.m. Thursday.
You can see the live feed on YouTube.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
— OC Scanner 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 (@OC_Scanner) March 6, 2025
WE HAVE THREE EAGLETS!!!!!! https://t.co/e9fs4xekjc
The Big Bear pair has three chicks (and as of this writing, Mom is covering them up to protect them from a snowstorm), which is a pretty good brood for eagles. Sadly, in cases where there are three chicks, one often doesn't survive. Hopefully, that won't happen this year at Big Bear.
There is another such camera on a nest in Decorah, Iowa. (Note: Live videos do not embed well; follow the links to see the camera feeds.)
Now, that Decorah feed, that one is of special significance. To me, anyway.
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Why? Because I grew up about 18 miles from that nest. Decorah is in Winneshiek County, where we lived in neighboring Allamakee County, but we did a lot of our trading in Decorah, and of course, as a teen, I spent a lot of time in that town, cruising back and forth from Mabe's Pizza to the Whippy Dip.
The Bear Creek Valley my folks' house was in had eagles hanging around most winters. They fed on winter-killed deer, on roadkill, and on anything they could catch. One deer died late in the winter one year across the creek from the house, and one morning, Dad counted nine eagles on the carcass. They're opportunistic feeders. When I was very young, you only saw them in places like the far north of Minnesota where we went fishing in the summers; it was a rare thing. Now, populations have rebounded dramatically. That's an unalloyed good. My kids who live in Iowa see them regularly along the rivers in their area, and here in Alaska, they're so common that some of our neighbors jokingly call them "Alaska crows."
It's great to see them rebounding. It's great to see the baby eagles. Maybe their resurgence will end up being a symbol, not only for a resurgence of our national symbol, but for 'Merica as well. My Mom always watched the Decorah eagle cam in her later years, sometimes for an hour at a time. Now I watch them for her. If you do likewise, check daily, because it's amazing how fast these babies grow.
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