SummaryMountain systems are often recognised as biodiversity hotspots; however, most montane forests are human-modified. Understanding the conservation value of human-modified forests is essential to mountain biodiversity conservation. In this study, mist-nets and point-counts were used to compare the bird communities of primary forests on ridges in the Ailao Mountains of Yunnan, China, and secondary forests, firewood forests, and pine plantations in nearby lower elevation zones. We found that community turnover among habitats was very high using both methods. Although the percentage of forest interior species and insectivores in each habitat was higher in the primary forests than in the human-modified forests, relatively high percentages of forest interior species and insectivores were recorded in the human-modified forests. Moreover, many bird species, forest interior species, insectivores and babblers were only recorded in the human-modified forests. Our study indicated that the primary forests are important for sustaining mountain bird diversity. However, given that primary forests are restricted to ridges, secondary forests, firewood forests, and pine plantations at lower elevations also play important roles in bird conservation in mountainous regions by increasing landscape diversity and partially offsetting species loss from primary forests. Therefore, conservation efforts should also be concentrated on human-modified forests at lower elevations in mountainous regions in south-west China.