Bird eating spider?

["Greg & Val Clancy" <>]

Hi Belinda,

The advice that you have received to not kill the spider is  wise advice. 
Even if it were to kill the occasional bird it wouldn't deserve to be 
killed.  Animals kill other animals in nature and as long as it is a native 
species behaving naturally we shouldn't interfere.  Raptors kill other birds 
but we don't insist that they be killed, although this was the thinking some 
decades back.
My spider book calls your spider 'Golden Orb-weaving Spider Nephila 
maculata' the largest of the genus.  I have found them as far south as Coffs 
Harbour, NSW.

Greg Clancy