BirdWingData: Wingspan and wing area data of birds compiled from multiple literature sources and original measurements

Abstract

Wing morphology plays a pivotal role in avian flight capabilities and ecological adaptations across diverse environments. Consequently, wing measurement data are used frequently in comparative analyses and hypothesis exploration to understand avian evolution. Among the parameters representing wing morphology, wingspan and wing area are relatively challenging to obtain compared to simpler measures such as wing length and hand-wing index. This study aimed to enhance accessibility to existing wingspan and wing area data by compiling measurements from 25 literature sources, in addition to unpublished data. The dataset covers 856 species across 95 families and 28 orders. Although the inclusion proportion varies widely among orders, ranging from 0% to 100%, this initial dataset forms a foundation for a more comprehensive database on avian wing morphology. The complete dataset for this abstract published in the Data Paper section of the journal is available in electronic format in MetaCat in JaLTER at https://jalter.diasjp.net/data/ERDP-2024-04. [Correction added on 6 January 2025, after first online publication: The URL for the dataset has been updated.] The dataset will be updated continuously, with the latest version available on figshare in CSV and Microsoft Excel formats (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.23537892.v2).