We describe a dataset of Passerine bird communities in Sierra Nevada, a Mediterranean high-mountain located in southern Spain. The dataset includes occurrences data from bird surveys carried out in four representative ecosystem types of Sierra Nevada from 2008 to 2015. For each contact both birds number and distance to transect line were recorded. A total of 27847 occurrences records were collected and 55694 measurements recorded. All records belong to Passeriformes order. 16 families and 44 genera were collected. Most of the taxa of the dataset are included in the European Red List. This dataset belongs to the Sierra Nevada Global-Change Observatory (OBSNEV), a long-term research project designed to compile socio-ecological information on the major ecosystem types in order to identify the impacts of global change in this area.