While environmental variability is theorized to impact the life history characteristics of organisms, these hypotheses have not been thoroughly tested with empirical data. To fill this gap, we synthesized a global data set of environmental variability metrics and life history characteristics across the ranges of 7,477 non-migratory, non-marine avian species. These data are derived from the ERA5 climate reanalysis, AVONET, BirdTree, and BirdLife databases as well as previously published research. By extracting environmental variability values across individual species' ranges, this data set allows users to evaluate avian species' pace of life in response to environmental change.