Methodology:

Wandering albatrosses were manually detected by scanning VHR satellite imagery obtained from the Maxar satellite WorldView-3. Single points were placed on the albatrosses, and the attribute table was filled out to contain information on the image type and model, and the location of the seabird colony. The images were manually labelled using separate polygons approximately matching the size of the monitor (160 × 260 m for viewing at a 1:600 scale). Labelling was carried out by one experienced observer ('reference count') and five novice volunteers (observers 1-5), assessing interobserver variation.

For additional details on attribute table definitions, please refer to the README affiliated with the shapefile data. For each annotated albatross, there is information about the imagery analysed: the location, latitude and longitude (in decimal degrees and recorded using the same geographic coordinate system and projection as the satellite imagery), imagery ID, imagery date, type of satellite, spatial resolution, number of multispectral bands, product level and type (e.g., Standard2A). The datasets are in the following projections:

Bird Island: WGS 1984 UTM Zone 24S

Annenkov: WGS 1984 UTM Zone 24S

Apotres: WGS 1984 UTM Zone 39S

Grande Coulee: WGS 1984 UTM Zone 42S

Data collection:

The datasets were annotated using ArcMap 10.5 software and the satellite images were pansharpened using the Gram-Schmidt algorithm.

Data quality:

The satellite images were pansharpened using the Gram-Schmidt algorithm.

The attribute table includes fields to specify the satellite image metadata. Please refer to the README associated with the data for details.

For Apotres Islands, there is no experienced observer shapefile.