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The suite of grassland bird species native to the Northern Great Plains (NGP) requires a mosaic of diverse habitats ranging from excessive to lightly disturbed plant communities. Many of these species have been on a considerable decline since 1966, more so than any other group of birds in North America. A major cause of this decline has been loss of habitat, more specifically loss of heterogeneity in the NGP. Contemporary grazing strategies manage for uniform use of plant communities and have resulted in reduced structural heterogeneity at both the pasture and landscape scales. Patch-burn grazing (PBG) has been a very effective management strategy in the tallgrass prairies to increase structural heterogeneity, and bird responses have been very positive. However, burning is extremely unpopular in much of the NGP. Therefore, we conducted research to evaluate winter-patch grazing (WPG) as a non-pyric strategy to increase the structural heterogeneity on mixed grass prairie pastures and increase avian diversity. WPG was implemented at the SDSU Cottonwood Research Station and on two cooperator ranches in 2016. In October 2016, a large wildfire burned a considerable amount of the station research pastures. This provided a unique opportunity to compare the effects of WPG and PBG on structural heterogeneity and avian diversity on NGP grasslands. Differences in bird parameters (e.g. species diversity, composition, densities, and nest success) and habitat parameters (e.g. plant community height, composition, VOR), were analyzed to determine treatment differences. Results from this study will help inform land managers of the potential for WPG to serve as a substitute for PBG for improving grassland heterogeneity, and as a management strategy for improving grassland bird habitat.