Differential impacts of wind and waves on albatross flight performance in two ocean basins

This dataset was used to identify the effect of winds and waves on albatross flight performance, specifically a reliance on wing flaps. It consists of hourly GPS positions for 370 foraging albatrosses nesting in Bird Island, South Georgia (Southern Ocean) or Midway Atoll (North Pacific) during breeding seasons between 2018 and 2023. The dataset includes identifying characteristics of each albatross, including species, nesting location, field season, trip type (incubation or brood-guard), and a unique ID. Study species include black-browed, grey-headed, and wandering albatrosses at Bird Island, and black-footed and Laysan albatrosses at Midway Atoll. Windspeed (km/h) and swell height (m) experienced by foraging birds were extracted from ERA5 hourly data on single levels (hourly temporal resolution, 0.25x0.25 degree spatial resolution). Wing flaps per hour were calculated by using LULU filters to identify peaks in the z-axis of accelerometer data (tags mounted on the central dorsal c..., Please refer to Maywar et al. (doi.org/10.1186/s40462-025-00614-w) for more details regarding the Methods used to create this dataset and to run subsequent analyses.
, # Data from: Differential impacts of wind and waves on albatross flight performance in two ocean basins

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.v15dv429p](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v15dv429p)

## Description of the data and file structure

Hourly data for albatross flap rates (flaps per hour) relative to wind and waves. Methods as described in Maywar et al.

### Files and variables

#### File: albatross_tracks.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* id: Individual ID of tagged bird
* datetime: Date and time of measurement (hourly)
* lon: Longitude (decimal degrees)
* lat: Latitude (decimal degrees)
* windspeed_kmh: Wind speed (km/hr)
* shts: Significant height of total swell (m)
* flaps: No. flaps per hour
* Location: Location of study colony (Bird Island, South Georgia or Midway Atoll, North Pacific)
* Species: Species of albatross (Black-browed, Black-footed, Grey-headed, Laysan, Wandering)
* Field_Season: Field season in which bird was tagged 

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