Harriet the bald eagle who helped wounded military veterans has died at the age of 35

Experts said that she had stopped eating in recent days and had to be put down

Experts said the 35-year-old bird had stopped eating in recent days (AP)

She was 35 years old - one heck of an age for a bald eagle, especially for one that had lost a wing.

Yet when when it was announced this week that Harriet, the eagle who had helped heal wounded soldiers, had died, there was nothing but sadness.

“With a heavy heart, we announce that our senior eagle ambassador, Harriet, has died,” said the National Eagle Centre in Minnesota.

“There were simply no more interventions that could extend and improve Harriet’s quality of life.”

Harriet’s unusual life of ambassadorship and feathered featly to wounded soldiers, began in 2000 when she was struck by a car on the edge of a road and lost a wing. For a wild eagle, in most circumstances such an injury would have proved fatal.

But someone contacted Ron Eckstein of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Amazingly, the injured bird was one that he had banded two decades earlier while investigating an eagle’s nest in the state’s Vilas County.

Harriet appeared on NBC in 2007 (AP)

While Harriet could no longer fly, her useful days were not behind her. Indeed, as an ambassador the eagle centre, she traveled to New York and Los Angeles for national TV appearances, and in 2007 she traveled to Washington to celebrate the removal of the bald eagle from the nation's endangered species list.

Yet, she was perhaps best known as the bird who sought to raise the spirits of others who were injured. She was taken on monthly visits to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis to greet veterans who had also suffered life-changing injuries.

Reports said that last year, because of her increasing age and arthritis, she retired from his role and had to take medications for her pain. In recent days, she had stopped eating, which the experts said was sign that she was near the natural end of her life. On Wednesday, she was put down.

“We believe the kindest thing to do was to keep her from a painful end and let her die peacefully in expert care”, Rolf Thompson, executive director of the National Eagle Centre, said in a statement.

“The Raptor Center has provided care for Harriet from the start. When they told us there is nothing more we can do, we knew that the time had come to let her go.”