A federal report released Thursday highlighted the perilous state of Hawai'i's avian population, noting nearly all native Hawaiian bird species are in danger of becoming extinct.

One-third of the nation's endangered birds are in Hawai'i, said the report issued by the Interior Department. More bird species are vulnerable to extinction in the islands than anywhere else in the country.

"That is the epicenter of extinctions and near-extinctions," said John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which helped produce the study. "Hawai'i is (a) borderline ecological disaster."

Many in the Islands are aware Hawai'i's birds are in trouble. But it's rare for the issue to receive such prominent attention.

And there are already signs the spotlight may translate into more money for bird population restoration efforts in the islands.

Darin Schroeder, American Bird Conservancy's executive director of conservation advocacy, told a Washington, D.C., news conference announcing the report that only 4 percent of the Bush administration's spending on endangered species recovery went to Hawai'i birds.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, acknowledging this and other similar remarks, indicated he would try to change the situation.

"My hope is that some of these places where we have had holes, we can address," Salazar said of upcoming budget plans.

Hawai'i's native birds are threatened by the destruction of their habitats by invasive plant species and feral animals such as pigs, goats and sheep.

Diseases, especially those borne by mosquitoes, are another killer.

One of those in trouble is the palila, a bird that lives on the upper slopes of Mauna Kea. Its population plunged by more than 60 percent from 6,600 in 2002 to 2,200 last year.

Habitat loss and predators are part of the problem, said Holly Freifeld, a vertebrate recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Honolulu.

Another is that grazing feral sheep ruin mamane trees, which provide palila birds with their preferred food: mamane seed pods. The trees are also being killed by disease.

The Fish and Wildlife Service plans to fence off an area on Mauna Kea, and remove sheep from the fenced area, to give the palila an environment where it can flourish, Freifeld said in an interview.

The restored habitat would also likely help other endangered birds which also have lived in the same forest ecosystem, she said.

Similar habitat restoration projects have worked in the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge.

Workers there installed fences, controlled invasive plant species, removed pigs, and planted koa and 'ohi'a trees.

The Interior Department's report, called "The State of the Birds United States of America 2009," noted Hakalau's populations of the Hawai'i creeper and 'akiapola'au have increased dramatically.

Scott Fretz, wildlife program manager at the state's Division of Forestry and Wildlife, said he was confident such efforts could help restore all of Hawai'i's endangered species, excluding those that have already become extinct.