For the followers of STTM who are grieving the loss of Jackie — the female eagle who was bonded to Shadow, but she left her body August 10th,’26 due to multiple health issues

I, too, followed the lives of Jackie (the female) and Shadow (the male) –the bonded eagle pair in the Big Bear Valley area in California.

In fact, they say there are”millions” of us who have been following these eagles, this wonderful and committed pair, plus their new eaglets, thanks to the webcam.

So I completely understand the grief and mourning about the physical loss of Jackie! I feel it, too.

The photo to the left is Jackie feeding a tiny pull-off to Luna and Sandy from one of the MANY fish that Shadow flew in. Those two were SO in sync, don’t you think??? And boy oh boy was Jackie a GOOD mother.

And Shadow kept them fed when dear Jackie never came back to the nest due to being quite sick and unable to fly weeks ago. Luna and Sandy, now teenagers and sub-adults, finally flew off for their own new adventure in life…even though only one parent was there to witness it. 🙁

And we were thankful how the The Ojai Raptor Center, where someone brought Jackie after finding her in water, clearly struggling, tried their best to save her. Please save her!! But she was far too gone and finally left her body in the nighttime or very early morning of August 10th.

Post Jackie’s Death

What surprised me after Jackie left her body is what occurred in human groups focused on this Eagle pair. One side was where mourning folks had deep and understandable grief, plus concerns about Shadow, the male Eagle left behind and how he was coping with this. They also strongly felt that Jackie would want to be buried where she grew up around Big Bear. Was there too much humanizing of how these eagles felt or thought?

The other side leaned into the belief that this committed bond between two eagles was simply evolutionary strategy and nothing more than biological instincts for raising offspring in a challenging wild environment. That nothing was at all like humans nor were there sentimental, sentient emotions in this bond. Was there too much biological-mechanical thinking about these eagles, void of any form of emotion or choice?

I take a middle ground and here’s why:

1. There is research evidence that birds show signs of feeling distress, fear, contentment, and even grief…in a birds conscious way of showing them. Shadow’s confusion and distress might have gone on during the times he kept vocalizing for her. He couldn’t say inwardly “I miss you. Where are you?” But he could “vocalize” his concern by calling for her, and even feel distress as some research shows of birds. Even parrots are known to show depression if their needs aren’t being met.

2. Just as we as human feel pain, so can birds. And they make it clear they don’t like feeling pain.

3. Birds can definitely focus on a target, and so can humans. Think of how Shadow would focus on a fish, extend his claws, and VOILA, he had that fish!!

4. Eagles like other birds have a form of episodic memory. Jackie and Shadow always knew how to get back to their tree and nest. Humans also have memory.

5. Did you know that chickens seem to “feel” their chick’s anxiety if the chick is in a stressful situation? And the hens show that same anxiety?

6. Have you seen those videos on YouTube where ravens slide down snowy roofs, and keep going back up to do it again and again? That implies they like fun and play.

Bottom line

There was a guy named Frans de Waal who studied primates. But he concluded that a variety of mammals, which includes us and birds, are emotionally smarter than we give them credit, even if the LEVELS are different between us and them. He even wrote a book titled Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

So though we shouldn’t assume that Eagles think exactly like we do, or can think abstractly the way we can, we can at last consider that they do have emotions, their unique forms of intelligence, and their ways of being conscious.

Jackie and Shadow, via the LA Times ——>

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