Pair of bald eagles welcome two hatchlings in California | California

Bald eagles named Jackie and Shadow are in the midst of cuddling with two new members of their nest after a couple of chicks hatched between Monday night and Tuesday morning, restoring hope after ravens ate their eggs two years ago.

The pair of bald eagles at Big Bear valley in the San Bernardino national forest in California welcomed their first chick after days of anticipation. The hatching process began the day before with the first visible pip, which is a crack in the eggshell.

The first crack was followed by a second pip by Monday morning. Thousands of viewers tuned into the nest’s live webcam, operated by the non-profit Friends of Big Bear Valley, and saw how Jackie was on her toes, rolling the eggs from time to time.

“Shadow happily got a turn on the eggs to give Jackie a morning break,” reads an update published on Tuesday from the non-profit.

Shadow attempted several times to take over incubation, but Jackie was too invested to leave. By mid-morning, the pair of bald eagles heard tiny chirps and the chicks’ beaks were visible through the cracks.

As the day progressed, Jackie brought a fish in preparation for feeding. By nightfall, the first chick fully emerged at 11.26pm on Monday.

“By the wee hours this morning, Chick #1 had become a fluffy fuzz ball as it’s downy covering dried into a soft gray coat,” reads a Tuesday update by the non-profit.

On Tuesday morning, a second chick was brought into the world. The chick began the final stage of hatching, known as “zippering,” using its egg tooth to crack a straight line around the shell while pushing with its feet.

About an hour later, its small wing peeked out, and at 4.29am, the second chick fully emerged.

“Soon after, Shadow called from a distance and Jackie seemed to be happily announcing that he was now Papa to 2 new fluffy chicks,” reads the update from Friends of Big Bear Valley.

The third egg is still within the expected hatching timeframe as it marks day 35 of its journey coming into the world.

The nest’s live webcam captures the unaware adult eagles as they continue sharing incubation duties, catching the birds in their highs and their lows. In 2023, ravens devoured Jackie and Shadow’s eggs, with luckily no hatchlings inside yet.

The compelling journeys of the pair of breeding raptors, streamed live on YouTube and Facebook from California, have drawn in hundreds of thousands of viewers since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bald eagles live up to 30 years in the wild, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and conservation efforts have seen the species recover strongly from the brink of extinction 40 years ago. The service’s most recent report estimates that numbers have quadrupled since 2009, to 316,700 birds, including 71,400 nesting pairs.