Big Bear eaglet Sunny flies the nest. See the bittersweet moment
First she hovered, and now she's flown!
Eaglet Sunny stretched her wings on Monday and flew out of the family nest for the first time, thrilling fans of the live webcam that monitors the Big Bear family of eagles that includes mom Jackie, dad Shadow and sibling Gizmo.
Video showed that, as the eaglet took off at 10:46 a.m., Gizmo's head swiveled, monitoring as Sunny fledged, or made an inaugural flight from the nest.
"It's exciting to have this beautiful, successful moment — and, at the same time, sad that we won't be seeing her as much anymore," said Sandy Steers, executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that operates the 24-hour nest cam. "Its great that she's successfully flown the nest."
Sometimes when eaglets fly the nest, they don't return, Steers told The Times in an earlier interview. But Sunny didn't go far.
Later Monday morning, one of the camera operators found the eaglet perching at the top of a tree nearby the 145-foot-tall Jeffrey pine that holds the family's huge nest.
What happens next for newly independent Sunny?
Parents Jackie and Shadow, will be following the eaglet around, protecting her and helping her find food for anywhere between a few weeks and a few months, Steers said. Eagles don't reach sexual maturity until they're around 4 or 5 years old.
The first year of life can be perilous for an eagle. Thanks to its inexperience, a juvenile bald eagle has less than a 50% chance of surviving, according to the American Eagle Foundation. If they survive, they can live 15 to 30 years in the wild.
Meanwhile, Gizmo will be turning 13 weeks old on Saturday and hasn't taken off yet.
Eaglets usually fledge at 10 to 14 weeks of age. Up until Monday, both eaglets had been practicing venturing out onto tree limbs, where they would flap their wings and bounce. They'd also tried hovering — which happens when an eaglet catches the wind at just the right moment and it takes their body off the ground, but they don't fully leave the nest.
Sunny is the fourth eaglet from Jackie and Shadow that has fledged. Three have fledged since the camera was installed, according to Steers, which she said is par for the course. The webcam was installed in 2015 and recorded its first nesting season in 2017.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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