The data file contains abundance of bird species recorded in 78 rural properties in Poland (surveyed in breeding season 2011), as well as the habitat variables used in the statistical analyses (described in the materials and methods section of the article). The file includes: Area (area of rural property in [m^2]) ycoord (latitude of the property site), xcoord (longitude of the property site), housing.type (type of rural property), property.age (age of the property), barn, granary, hen.house, pigsty, cowshed, stable, outbuilding, pigeon.loft, bird.feeder, garage, garden.plot, orchard, lawn (presence/abscense of these elements in the property), dog (number of dogs in the property), cat (number of cats in the property), Ntree (number of trees in the property), Nbush (number of bushes in the property), Prct.grassland (percentage coverage of grasslands within a 500-m radius from the surveyed site), Prct.forest (percentage coverage of forest within a 500-m radius from the surveyed site), Prct.settlement (percentage coverage of settlements within a 500-m radius from the surveyed site) Hir rus, Pas dom, Stu vul etc. (abundance of bird species recorded in the property; the abbreviations of species names are given in the Supporting Information of the article), Nindividuals (bird abundance in the property) Nspecies (species richness in the property)