Rotational grazing systems are widely promoted by wildlife conservation and government agencies in Prairie Canada despite the limited evidence that these systems are most beneficial for grassland bird species.  We quantified grassland bird abundance on 28 native mixed-grass pastures managed with season-long and rotational grazing systems in southern Saskatchewan, Canada.  Our objectives were to determine whether grassland bird abundance was influenced by grazing system type, and how well rangeland assessment factors (e.g., range condition, grazing intensity, carry-over vegetation) explain variation in abundance of grassland birds compared to vegetation structure measurements commonly used by grassland bird researchers.  Using an information theoretic approach, we found that the abundance of eight grassland birds was influenced more by vegetation features than the type of grazing system. These results demonstrate that ranchers are capable of providing suitable habitat for grassland birds equally well with either grazing system. Furthermore, abundance models composed of vegetation structure parameters and those commonly used in assessing rangelands (i.e. range condition, range site, plant vigor, and carry-over) out-performed models that contained only one type of parameter.  We encourage researchers to better assess the predictability of bird-habitat models using range assessment factors and vegetation structure to determine whether the increased costs of intensive vegetation sampling are worth any potential improvements in models used to guide management of rangelands. We also suggest that wildlife conservation organizations focus more attention on the ultimate factors that influence native rangeland condition and vegetation structure (i.e. cattle distribution and densities, timing and frequency of grazing, and the influence of precipitation and soil type) when working with ranchers to restore, maintain or improve habitat for grassland birds.