About a year ago the subject of birds as food items of spiders was
well illustrated on the Internet with the victim being an adult
Chestnut-breasted Mannikin all wrapped up in a web of a Golden
Orb-weaver. (Nephila spp). In the Wet Tropics their webs are commonly
seen around foliage adjacent to rainforest during the warmer months and
are so named as their webs have golden strands.
I have a monthly talkback radio segment in Cairns and as a result of
the aforementioned email a listener from Malanda sent me an image of a
Red-browed Firetail bound up in a Golden Orb's web. In this instance its
head was missing and it seems creditable that the spider had removed it.
While on tour last Friday we visited an avenue of flowering
grevillias to locate honeyeater species. We were nicely surprised with
the good numbers of both honeyeaters and lorikeets in attendance and the
nectar appeared to be flowing readily due to an overnight shower.
One of our party beckoned us to a sad sight. There was an immature
male Scarlet Honeyeater bound up in a Nephila Spider's web. It was a
surprisingly small web and was strategically placed high in one of the
grevillea trees about three metres from the ground.
This chance predation of smaller bird species may be a regular
occurence in the tropics however it seems that it has not been reported
on many occassions.
Del. Richards, Fine Feather Tours, Mossman, NQ.
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