In the western United States, more frequent and higher severity wildfires, combined with the effects of climate change and drought, threaten the health and function of forests and wildlife that inhabit them. In the Sierra Nevada range of California, recent losses of giant sequoia trees (Sequoiadendron giganteum) to high severity fire underscore the vulnerability of this highly spatially restricted forest type. Prescribed fire is an important component of strategies to protect these trees, but its effects on wildlife inhabiting sequoia groves are poorly known. We conducted avian point counts during the breeding seasons 2011–2024 in nine sequoia groves across Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and used a Bayesian framework to model 27 species’ responses to three fire (prescribed and wild) metrics over the study period: burn severity, time since fire, and fire frequency. Response varied by metric, but for species with supported responses, the interaction of fire severity and time since fire had a generally positive effect while the individual effect of each metric was generally negative. These results point to the complexity of avian population response to fire, and the need for further study to maximize compatibility of forest management and wildlife conservation in giant sequoia groves.