Agriculture on drained lowland peat, though very productive, contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One potential solution is to implement paludiculture: an agricultural system of cropping with raised water tables. Despite the potential for reducing GHG emissions, little is known about the impact of paludiculture on biodiversity. We carried out breeding bird surveys using point counts to investigate bird habitat associations in cattail (Typha spp.) paludiculture at 10 trial sites in the Netherlands. We also performed point counts at nine nearby natural wetland sites and nine agricultural grassland sites for comparison. We modelled the results using GLMM and ANOSIM to understand differences in bird abundance and community composition between these land uses. Paludiculture hosted a range of generalist and wetland specialist bird species, including several that are considered of European or global conservation concern. Predicted bird abundance in paludiculture was comparable to natural wetland (30.8 birds per ha; standard error: ±7.85; and 31.5 ±10.5, respectively) and significantly higher than on grasslands (10.5 ±3.23, p < 0.01). Community composition in paludiculture was between that of wetlands and grasslands. Whilst some wetland specialists were recorded in paludiculture, they were at lower abundance than in wetlands, and not all wetland specialists were present in paludiculture. The only species present in both paludiculture and grassland were those which forage in both habitats and are considered generalists. Our study shows that paludiculture can support overall bird abundance on par with wetlands, and function as a habitat bridging agricultural and wetland species assemblages by providing resources for both generalist and wetland-associated species. These results suggest that paludiculture can be a multifunctional land use, enhancing biodiversity in addition to other known benefits.