The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service yesterday released a plan to help 21 species of Hawai'i forest birds.

"This plan represents a tremendous effort by a multitude of federal, state and private partners," said Patrick Leonard, field supervisor for the service's Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office. "Such a large-scale plan can only be successfully implemented through cooperative conservation."

The list covers 19 species that are endangered, one that is a candidate for listing and one that is a "species of concern." The latter species is the Bishop's 'o'o, which hasn't been reliably observed since 1904.

Most of the species included in the plan are found only above 4,000 feet in the rainforests of the Big Island, Maui and Kaua'i. The exceptions are the palila, which lives in the dry upland forests of Mauna Kea, and O'ahu's 'elepaio, which lives in forests at elevations as low as 330 feet.

Under the plan, efforts to help the birds' numbers recover include forest protection, forest restoration, predator control, controlling avian disease, fencing, and removing hoofed animals such as pigs, goats, sheep and deer.

The primary threats to the birds include habitat loss and degradation from agriculture, development, cattle grazing, rooting by feral pigs, timber harvesting, invasive species and disease.

A draft of the plan was released for public review in October 2003.