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

Study Extent

Observed sites were train stations exclude subway station in whole Kinki region of Japan which include 6 prefectures these are Hyogo, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Shiga, Wakayama.

Sampling

Participants observed the number of Burn swallow nests during the reproductive season (20 April to 22 July) in 2012 at train station excluded subway stations. In total, 124 citizen scientists were recruited using Twitter and nature-friendly mailing lists managed by the Osaka Prefectural Museum of Natural History. No face to face meetings on the project were conducted with participants.

Method steps

1. Information manager received results from participants through e-mail and aggregated that into 1) the date of the search, 2) station name, 3) number of nests without a status and species on Burn swallow.

In this census we found nests of 3 Burn swallows species these were Hirundo rustica, Hirundo daurica and Delichon urbica.

1. Hirundo rustica
   rank: species
2. Hirundo daurica
   rank: species
3. Delichon urbica
   rank: species

Observed sites were train stations exclude subway station in whole Kinki region of Japan which include 6 prefectures these are Hyogo, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Shiga, Wakayama. Train stations in Japan have similar small-scale environmental conditions across several regions consisting of open, concrete buildings. The Kinki region is characterized by strong environmental gradients, from heavily urbanized areas to farmland- and forest-dominated areas.