Wet meadows in the Sierra Nevada are a unique habitat characterized by retention of saturated soils throughout the growing season. Diverse wildlife, including the majority of Sierra Nevada breeding bird species, use montane meadows even though they account for a very small portion of the landscape. Because of meadows’ importance to Sierra Nevada ecosystems, land managers have prioritized wide-scale restoration efforts to improve overall ecosystem productivity, aid with water management, and support individual species, like Willow Flycatcher, that are especially dependent on healthy meadow systems. We identified 63 meadows that were restored between 2010 and 2024, and where multi-species avian point count surveys were conducted before and after restoration. We used N-mixture models to assess the differences in species abundance pre- and post- restoration and to assess which meadow restoration techniques and landscape covariates best support avian diversity and abundance. Restoration had a minimal effect overall bird abundance, but it changed species communities to favor riparian specialists. Regardless of restoration status, the covariates most closely associated with species abundance were metrics of water availability. Restoration types such as channel filling that substantially increased water availability were the most effective at increasing the abundance of wetland specialist species.