Background: Restoration projects have been implemented worldwide to mitigate the adverse effects of the loss and degradation of wetland habitats. Much research has been carried out on the impacts on birds of wetland restoration and management projects in China. Studies have mainly investigated central or coastal wetlands, while inland wetlands in remote areas have been much less studied. We focused on examining the response of wild birds to wetland restoration in Dianchi Lake, south-west China. Methods: The line transect method was performed at 26 sampling plots. Three of these were in the city, and to acquire all wild bird data 23 plots were located every 2-8 km along the shore of Dianchi Lake, between December 2011 and November 2013. We collected all related bird records by searching the available literature, articles, newspapers and records of birdwatchers to compare species variation before and after implementation of wetland restoration. To measure the relationships between waterbird assemblages and habitat structures, we used canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) to pair the main matrix of bird assemblages with a second matrix of habitat variables. Results: We recorded 182 bird species belonging to 51 families and 17 orders. Of the species, 42 were new records for Kunming City and 20 were new records for Yunnan Province. Ten waterbird species were found to have disappeared from the shore of Dianchi Lake. CCA results indicated that waterbirds could be divided into four categories based on their habitat preference: synanthropic (wintering gulls), special habitat (shorebirds), semi-natural (wintering coots and ducks) and disturbance-tolerant (resident) species. Conclusions: Our study is the first to consider the entire wild bird community throughout the year and discuss the species variation before and after wetland restoration projects launched for Dianchi Lake. Distinct habitat requirements of different waterbird groups were detected in our study, suggesting different types of restoration and management should be implemented.