This dataset contains penguin survey data and imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) across the South Sandwich Islands, from December 2019 to February 2020. It comprises orthotiff images (orthotiffs) and digital elevation models (DEMS) of surveyed sites, geographic penguin colony outlines, nest coordinates for individual species, mixed species'' sub-colonies and groups where species-level identification was not possible. Finally, it also includes the total count for these different categories for each individual site, alongside an estimate of the nests that were not counted due to distortion in certain parts of the orthotiffs.

The orthotiff images and DEMS were produced using Structure-from-motion (SfM), a three-dimensional (3D) rendering technology, and were then loaded into QGIS to manually extract nest coordinates for chinstrap, adelie, gentoo and macaroni penguins. Where counting nests was not possible, the estimate of possible nests present was calculated using regions of the site where a count was carried out.

This dataset was collected by researchers at the Polar Ecology and Conservation Group at the University of Oxford with the aim that surveying these sites and updating current population assessments over the South Sandwich Islands will aide conservation policy and advance monitoring technology and capability.

The South Sandwich Islands expedition was supported by the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and funded by the John Ellerman Foundation and donations from passengers on Quark Expeditions'' ships.