Bald eagles Jackie and Shadow keep tending to 3 eggs that won’t hatch in California
Bald eagles Jackie and Shadow continue to incubate three eggs that won’t hatch in their Southern California nest, a group said.
Thousands of viewers have anxiously waited for any signs of the hatching process for over a week, but none came.
By this point, it’s unlikely any of the eggs will hatch, Friends of Big Bear Valley executive director Sandy Steers said in a March 11 Facebook post.
These bald eagles have typically had eggs hatch after 38 to 39 days, Steers previously said.
Jackie’s first egg was laid 47 days ago, as of March 12 — over a week beyond the time frame for it to hatch.
Her second egg was laid 44 days ago on Jan. 28. And her third egg was laid 41 days ago, McClatchy News reported.
“This is later than Jackie’s eggs have hatched in the past, so it is probably unlikely for them to hatch at this point…but as someone pointed out to me, miracles do happen,” Steers wrote.
What went wrong with the eggs?
Steers said we won’t know for certain what happened to the eggs, but there are a few reasons a bald eagle egg won’t hatch.
Those reasons could be environmental, “such as temperatures, humidity percentages, oxygen levels at high altitude,” she wrote.
Or there could be a biological reason that prevented the eggs from hatching like they weren’t fertilized when the eagles were mating, according to the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy.
However, infertility doesn’t seem to be an issue with either Jackie or Shadow because Steers said they had eaglets in 2019 and 2022.
Jackie and Shadow will eventually leave the eggs behind, as they did last year when their two eggs didn’t hatch, McClatchy News reported.
“Jackie and Shadow and their journey are still here,” she said. “They continue doing what they do best … being eagles and taking care of what they have in front of them in each moment.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2024 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Bald eagles Jackie and Shadow keep tending to 3 eggs that won’t hatch in California."
