As thousands of viewers watched on a livestream, one of the two Big Bear eaglets – Sandy – suddenly fell from a branch on Sunday morning and temporarily disappeared, as the camera operator zoomed over a vast expanse of trees to locate it.
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After it was found in a lower tangle of branches, the bird took another spill and disappeared again.
“I’m on the live cam now. OMG. I’m having heart palpitations right now. I hope there are no injuries,” Lina Cabanila said in a Big Bear group post that showed the eaglet’s tumble after a collision with its sibling in the “front porch” branches of the large nest.
“This was bound to happen the way they have been out on a limb then trying to hop-fly over the other to get back to the nest. Hopefully, Sandy will be OK…..” said Larry Pilkinton in the same thread.
“I need everyone to stay calm,” Friends of Big Bear Valley media manager Jenny Voisard said in a brief interview with the San Bernardino Sun.
Voisard said it appeared that Sandy took a “premature fledge” – or flight – from the nest. It happened shortly after 11:30 a.m.
“Jackie is on scene,” she added, referring to one of the eaglet’s parents, who also was spotted among the trees on the webcam shortly after Sandy fell.
The 2026 eaglets made their debut on April 4 and 5, part of the extended bird family of Jackie and Shadow, and have been the center of a 24/7 livestream operated by Friends of Big Bear Valley.
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An eagle is considered a fledgling after it has grown the necessary feathers and wing muscles that would allow the bird to take its first flight from its nest.
Voisard said earlier this month that eaglets typically fledge from a nest 10 to 14 weeks after birth.
Signs that eaglets are ready to fledge, when a bird is ready for flight, are when they begin to hover in their nest by flapping their wings, Voisard said.
“They’ll start to branch out and perch on some of the other branches,” said Vosiard, “They’ll move out and go out to the ‘front porch branch.’”
As nearly 17,000 viewers watched on a live stream on Saturday afternoon, those behaviors were on full display. One of the birds remained on a branch next to the nest, while the other moved between the branch and the nest. Both stretched their wings out at times, appearing on the verge of taking flight.
On Sunday morning, more than 20,000 viewers were watching the live camera.
Voisard previously said that Sandy and Luna are likely to stick around for some time after they have fledged from the nest, remaining under the care of their eagle parents and learning from them.
The young eagles don’t stay for long, though.
Within weeks of leaving the nest, the young birds migrate hundreds of miles north to join others of their kind in search of salmon and other food, according to the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Staff writers Samantha Gowen and Sean Emery contributed to this report.