Data from: A global review of Procellariiform flight height, flight speed and nocturnal activity: Implications for offshore wind farm collision risk

Offshore wind farms are a key component of the transition to renewable
energy generation and are planned globally. Procellariiformes
(albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, and storm-petrels) include the most
threatened and abundant seabird families, yet their risk of collision with
offshore wind turbines remains virtually unquantified because we lack the
ecological information necessary to parametrize Collision Risk Models
(CRMs). However, Procellariiformes are relatively well studied in academic
literature, presenting the opportunity for a systematic review through a
collision-risk lens. Here, we conduct meta-analyses to calculate
species-level values for core CRM parameters: flight height, flight speed,
and nocturnal flight. Our systematic review returned 163 studies,
providing excellent species coverage (>1 parameter value for 119 of
the 145 Procellariiform species). We compiled a flight parameter database
with the most values for flight speed and nocturnal flight, while values
for Procellariiform flight height were scarce and lacked empirical data.
Procellariiformes flew at speeds up to 28
ms<sup>-1</sup> with species flight speeds
generally prescribed by aerodynamic and flight morphology theory.
Procellariiform flight activity varied across the diel cycle, with
approximately a third of species flying more at night, a third flying
during daytime, and a third with no preference. Empirical studies
characterised low (0-13m) Procellariiform mean flight heights, but only
for 21 species; expert opinion studies gave better coverage (104 species)
but were highly uncertain when describing how frequently Procellariiformes
may fly in a turbine’s rotor swept zone. We make recommendations for how
to best parameterise CRMs and identify priorities for further research,
such as the importance of ‘instantaneous’ GPS biologger flight speeds,
reconsidering how we model nocturnality in CRMs (given the abundance of
night-flying Procellariiformes), the merits of parameterising CRMs with
site-specific data over generic values, and how new technologies can fill
data gaps.  Synthesis and applications. We present a database of
mean flight parameter values and uncertainty for Procellariiform species
and flight groups. Flight speed and nocturnal flight parameter values are
ready for use in CRMs, but flight height results are too uncertain for
useful parameterization. To fill this key information gap, we recommend
mandatory Procellariiform flight height data collection at planned
offshore wind farms.