dpAs thousands of viewers watched on a livestream, one of the two Big Bear eaglets, Sandy, took a steep, accidental plunge from a tree branch on Sunday morning, but shortly after that, she spread her wings and soared away.
“She’s fine,” said Jenny Voisard, media manager with Friends of Big Bear Valley, in a brief interview early Sunday afternoon. “I would just urge everyone to be calm.”
Viewers were stunned to see Sandy tumble from the tree at 11:24 a.m., according to the livestream timestamp.
“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 plunge after a collision with her brother, Luna, on 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.
“Hope wings aren’t injured!” said Jeannie Kendrick.
“Luna attempted to jump over Sandy to get back to the nest, when Sandy lost her footing and fell to some branches below,” the Friends of Big Bear Valley later explained on their Facebook page. “A few minutes later she freed herself from those branches and apparently landed somewhere below the nest as we could hear her squees.
“Jackie showed up within minutes and landed below the nest, keeping an eye on Sandy,” the post added, referring to the eaglet’s mother.
“At 11:30, our security camera captured Sandy flying from the nest tree area to another area out of view, making it difficult to find where she landed,” the post continued. “Sandy looked good in her flight, and she is likely relaxing from her unexpected adventure.”
The post went on to say that Jackie and her mate Shadow will now follow their offspring and make sure she is fed and ok. The Friends’ camera operators were continuing to look for her on Sunday afternoon.
Sandy and her brother Luna made their debut on April 4 and 5, and have been the center of the 24/7 livestream operated by the nonprofit Friends group.
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 take 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,” Vosiard said. “They’ll move out and go out to the ‘front porch branch.’”
Those behaviors were on full display this weekend. 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 cameras.
After Sandy fell and then fledged, her brother could be seen on the livestream looking around the nest and chirping loudly.
“Luna certainly has been looking for his sibling since she left,” Voisard said.
He was still perched on the front porch branch after the sun set Sunday evening, keeping watch in the darkness.
Voisard noted that it is illegal for people to enter a bald eagle habitat and urged people to steer clear. She said faint voices that could be heard on the webcam on Sunday morning after Sandy fell were not those of the Friends of Big Bear Valley or the webcam operator’s.
Voisard previously said that Sandy and Luna would be likely to stick around for some time after taking flight, 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.
“Young bald eagles are nomadic the first few years of their lives, and they can travel far and wide before they settle down to take a mate and build a nest,” Voisard said.
Sandy’s flight came about two weeks after the Friends group held a celebration of life ceremony for its late Executive Director, Sandy Steers, who died in February.
Steers pioneered the idea of installing web cameras that provide continuous video access into the daily lives of bald eagles Jackie and Shadow. The first camera was set up on a tree branch above their nest in 2015, and a second was added in 2021 on a nearby tree.
Community members and fans of the Big Bear Eagles gathered Saturday, June 13, 2026 at Veterans Park in Big Bear to honor Steers.
Before Steers died, she was leading a fight against a 50-luxury home development less than a mile from Jackie and Shadow’s nesting ground. Steers helped negotiate a $10 million land purchase agreement from the developer, aiming to permanently safeguard the forest area. As of mid-June, more than $3 million has been donated to the cause.
Steers said by email back in January that the entire ethos of Friends of Big Bear Valley’s mission was to protect and conserve.
“Jackie and Shadow’s unique and irreplaceable habitat through monitoring, education and advocacy (is) also helping humans connect with nature,” she said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Staff writers Samantha Gowen and Sean Emery contributed to this report.
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