A nest-site survey of Barn swallow at railroad stations in the Kinki District,south-central Japan

Citizen science approaches can result in larger data sets than studies conducted by individuals. However, it has the risks of errors and quality bias. To overcome these demerits of citizen science, we implemented a study of Barn swallows, a well-known and well-regarded Japanese bird that frequently nests in railroad stations. The railroad stations are ideal survey sites for the citizen science approach because they inherently avoid several potential source of errors, including geographic bias and dissimilar conditions. In this data set, assisted by 124 citizen scientists conducted a survey of nesting barn swallows in the Kinki District, which included six prefectures in south-central Japan. The data was collected from 1336 railroad stations i.e. event between the dates of 16 May to 22 July, 2012.