Please don't kill the spider!
Gorgeous photo, by the way. Mind you, with such a stunning subject, it is
hard to do otherwise.
You are right that it is Nephila sp. and she (it is a female) are known as
bird-eating spiders, as are many are spiders of a huge variety of species,
Eating birds is very rare. Birds are not their preferred food. Their webs
are very strong and they will occasionally catch a very small bird.
This is a very common spider, extremely docile and a divine creature to
look at. Leave her be and enjoy her. I would be most surprised if you ever
saw a bird in the web.
Other Queenslanders may choose to disagree. I am well known for my extreme
bias towards spiders!
Lynne
> We have an enormous spider in our yard (in Brisbane) that we haven't seen
> before. Its spectacular, with a body length around 7-8 cm. I think I
> have
> ID'd it correctly as `Nephila pilipes' The Northern Giant Orb spider. The
> link to the photo I took of it today is below:
>
> http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj144/Serenity-photos/SPIDER.jpg
>
> So when I was trying to ID it on google, I came across a youtube video of
> one of these eating a young lewin honeyeater that it had trapped in its
> nest. OMG!
>
> We are friends with our local birds and wouldn't want to see them eaten by
> a
> giant spider! But its also a very cool giant spider!
>
> Should we kill it to stop it from eating birds and breedng up a colony of
> giant bird eating spiders? Or just leave it? I don't want to kill it, but
> then I'd feel pretty cut if a young bird I know died in its web.
>
> Thanks for your opinions!
>
> Cheers,
> Belinda
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> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>
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--
Lynne Kelly
author, educator: http://www.lynnekelly.com.au
EUMY Education: http://www.eumyeducation.com
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