We studied the effects of number of visits, point placement, and vegetation type on bird species richness and relative abundance indices using the Marsh Monitoring Program (MMP) bird point-count-protocol. We also assessed the performance of MMP point counts versus flushing lines. The study was conducted at Great Lakes coastal and inland emergent wetlands, southern Ontario, Canada. At the scale of an individual point, increasing number of visits yielded significant increases in cumulative species richness up to nine visits in flooded, interspersed, inland wetlands, and up to five visits in relatively dry, dense, coastal wetlands. Presence at points for six of eight common species could be determined with 90% certainty with three visits. Point placement at the edge versus the interior of large vegetation patches within large wetlands had no effect on species richness or relative abundance counts. Flushing lines detected significantly fewer species than did point counts and did not significantly improve relative abundance estimates of individual species.