---
title: "Jackie, the Big Bear eagle, rallies after a blood transfusion but stays critical"
description: "A day after the famous nest-cam eagle was found grounded, she has had a life-saving blood transfusion, from a resident bald eagle named Spirit, and is eating, perching and brighter. She remains critical and severely anemic, and the cause of her illness is still unknown. Vets ruled out lead poisoning and found no cancer on a CT scan."
category: "Los Angeles"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/los-angeles
author: "Gabriela Soto"
published: 2026-07-23T22:40:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-23T22:40:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/jackie-the-big-bear-eagle-rallies-after-a-blood-transfusion-but-stays-critical
tags: ["jackie-and-shadow", "big-bear", "bald-eagle", "ojai-raptor-center", "wildlife"]
---
# Jackie, the Big Bear eagle, rallies after a blood transfusion but stays critical

A day after the famous nest-cam eagle was found grounded, she has had a life-saving blood transfusion, from a resident bald eagle named Spirit, and is eating, perching and brighter. She remains critical and severely anemic, and the cause of her illness is still unknown. Vets ruled out lead poisoning and found no cancer on a CT scan.

Jackie, the Big Bear bald eagle whose nest camera has a national following, is holding on, and, after a dramatic intervention, doing a little better, [ABC7 reports](https://abc7.com/post/jackies-health-successful-life-saving-blood-transfusion-severely-anemic-critical/19564623/). The Herald reported on her rescue in critical condition; this is where the story stands now.

## The transfusion

The most striking development is how she was treated. Jackie received a life-saving blood transfusion from Spirit, a resident bald eagle at the California Living Museum in Bakersfield, one eagle giving blood to another. It is the kind of measure that underscores how serious her condition is, and it appears to have helped.

## Better, but not out of danger

The Ojai Raptor Center, which is caring for her, describes genuine improvement without overstating it. Jackie is eating well, perching normally, and, in the center's words, remains bright and strong. Her kidney inflammation, one of the alarming findings when she arrived, has improved.

And yet she is still listed in critical condition and remains severely anemic even after the transfusion, which is the detail that keeps this from being a recovery story just yet. Improvement and stability are not the same as being out of danger, and the center is careful about the difference.

## The mystery that remains

What the medical team still does not have is a cause. That absence is itself notable, because they have been ruling things out methodically. Lead poisoning, a common and often fatal threat to raptors that scavenge, has been ruled out. A CT scan found no cancer and no obvious metal in her system. Vets found no fishing hooks, lines or weights.

So Jackie is severely ill, improving with intensive care, and nobody yet knows exactly why. "It is still too early to predict the outcome," the raptor center said, adding that "wildlife medicine often requires patience, and some answers simply take time."

For the large online audience that has watched Jackie and her mate Shadow raise eaglets through storms and losses, the update is the one they were hoping for without being the one they can fully exhale over: she is fighting, and she is not yet safe. The center said it expected to have another update on Monday, and the Herald will report it.

## Sources

- [Jackie still critical after life-saving blood transfusion but shows improvement, vet team says](https://abc7.com/post/jackies-health-successful-life-saving-blood-transfusion-severely-anemic-critical/19564623/)