In front of thousands of live viewers, one of Ursa Major’s two eaglets, Sandy, took a steep, accidental leap from a tree branch Sunday morning, but soon after spread its wings and flew away.
“She’s fine,” Jenny Voisard, media manager for Friends of Big Bear Valley, said in a brief interview early Sunday morning. โI would just urge everyone to remain calm.โ
Viewers were stunned to see Sandy fall from the tree at 11:24 a.m., according to the livestream timestamp.
“I’m on live camera right now. Oh my God. My heart is racing right now. I hope there are no injuries,” Lina Cabanila said in a Big Bear post that showed the eagle falling after colliding with her brother Luna on the branches of the “porch” of a large nest.
“It had to happen because they were on the edge and then trying to fly over the other to get back to the nest. Hopefully Sandy will be okay,” Larry Pilkinton said in the same thread.
โI hope the wings arenโt damaged!โ said Ginny Kendrick.
โLuna tried to jump over Sandy to get back to the nest, but Sandy lost her balance and fell onto the branches below,โ Friends of the Big Dipper Valley later explained on their Facebook page. โAfter a few minutes she freed herself from those branches and apparently landed somewhere under the nest as we could hear her squealing.
โJackie appeared a few minutes later and landed under the nest, watching Sandy,โ the post added, referring to the eaglet’s mother.
โAt 11:30 a.m., our surveillance camera captured Sandy flying from the nesting site to another location out of sight, making it difficult to find where she landed,โ the report continued. โSandy looked good during the flight and is probably resting from her unexpected adventure.โ
Sandy on camera live on Saturday evening, June 27, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Friends of the Big Bear Valley)
The message went on to say that Jackie and her friend Shadow would now look after their offspring and make sure she was fed and well. Friends camera crews continued to search for her Sunday afternoon.
Sandy and her brother Luna made their debut on April 4 and 5 and were the center of a 24-hour livestream hosted by the nonprofit group Friends.
An eagle is considered a chick after it has grown the necessary feathers and wing muscles that will allow the bird to take its first flight from the nest.
Earlier this month, Wojsar reported that eaglets typically fly out of the nest 10 to 14 weeks after birth.
Signs that eaglets are ready to fly are when they begin to hover in the nest, flapping their wings, Voisard says.
โThey will start branching out and landing on other branches,โ Vosiard said. โThey will move in and go out to the โbranch on the porch.โ
This behavior was on full display this weekend. One of the birds remained on the branch next to the nest, while the other moved between the branch and the nest. Both of them spread their wings from time to time, seeming to be about to take off.
More than 20,000 viewers watched the live cameras on Sunday morning.
After Sandy fell and then fledged, her brother could be seen on the live feed inspecting the nest and chirping loudly.
โLuna has definitely been looking for his brother since she left,โ Voisard said.
He was still sitting on the porch branch after sunset Sunday night, watching in the dark.
Voisard noted that people are prohibited from entering the bald eagle’s habitat and urged people to stay away. She said the faint voices that could be heard on the webcam Sunday morning after Sandy hit did not belong to the Friends of Big Bear Valley or the webcam operator.
Voisard previously said Sandy and Luna would likely remain here for a while after the flight, remaining under the care of their eagle parents and learning from them.
However, young eagles do not stay here for long.
Within weeks of leaving the nest, the young birds migrate hundreds of miles north to join others of their species in search of salmon and other food, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
โYoung bald eagles are nomadic for the first few years of their lives and may travel far and wide before settling down to find a mate and build a nest,โ Woisard said.
Sandy’s flight came about two weeks after the Friends group held a ceremony to honor late executive director Sandy Steers, who died in February.
Steers pioneered the idea of โโinstalling webcams that provide continuous video access to the daily lives of bald eagles Jackie and Shadow. The first camera was installed on a tree branch above their nest in 2015, and the second was added in 2021 on a nearby tree.
Community members and Big Bear Eagles fans gathered Saturday, June 13, 2026, at Veterans Park in Big Bear to remember Steers.
Before Steers died, she was fighting against a 50-person luxury apartment complex located less than a mile from Jackie and Shadow’s nesting site. Steers helped negotiate a $10 million land purchase agreement with the developer to permanently protect the forested area. As of mid-June, more than $3 million had been donated to the cause.
Back in January, Steers said via email that the Friends of Big Bear Valley’s core mission was protection and conservation.
โJackie and Shadow’s unique and irreplaceable habitat, through monitoring, education and advocacy, also helps people connect with nature,โ she said.
This story is developing and will be updated.
Staff writers Samantha Gowan and Sean Emery contributed to this report.
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