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Over the last two centuries >50% of North American wetlands have been drained for agricultural production. As a result, wetland dependent wildlife are of high conservation concern and threats to these ecosystems are widespread and pervasive. Of particular importance is the prairie pothole region (PPR) of North America that produces 50%-80% of the continents waterfowl and also provides habitat for >100 other wetland-dependent birds. Despite the importance of the PPR for biodiversity conservation, few studies have estimated densities for secretive marshbirds in this region or investigated factors driving wetland selection. We used the North American Marshbird Monitoring Program sampling protocols to investigate habitat selection and abundance of nine secretive marshbirds across multiple scales in the PPR. We detected 327 individuals comprised of seven of our nine focal species. The most abundant species was Virginia rail (Rallus limicola) with 2.5 � 0.7 birds-ha, followed by pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) 0.7 � 0.1 birds-ha, American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosis) 2.1 � 1.7 birds-ha, and sora (Porzana carolina) 2.1 � 0.9 birds-ha. This preliminary data suggests that the PPR region is of great importance to secretive marshbirds as these densities are much higher than other areas reported in the Midwest and Great Plains. This information coupled with future analyses on landscape variables influencing habitat selection will greatly improve our general knowledge and ability to plan conservation for secretive marshbirds in the northern Great Plains.