Spider Attacks Bird

WARNING, THIS POST GETS KINDA GROSS!

Maybe you've gotten this story already in your inbox, but according to early reports, it's true!

It's a spider eat bird world out there! I don't know if you noticed Mum Of Critters comment in the previous post, but here is a story of a spider with a bird from Australia! According to an article from news.com.au, a giant orb spider appears to have captured and killed a chestnut-breasted mannikin in Atherton, near Cairns:

There's a much more "heart breaking" photo for those who are squeamish when it comes to cute birds meeting a nasty end at this link.

Joel Shakespeare, the head spider keeper at NSW's Australian Reptile Park said he had seen golden orb weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger. Mr Shakespeare said that the bird, a chestnut-breasted mannikin which appears frozen in an angel-like pose in the pictures, is likely to have flown into the web and got caught. "It wouldn't eat the whole bird," he said. "It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel." Queensland Museum's Greg Czechura is reported as saying cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare".

"It builds a very strong web," he said, but also added that the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened due to its struggle to free its wings. "The more they struggle, the more tangled up and exhausted they get and they go into stress."

Read the full story here.

This reminds me of a few years ago and Bird Watchers Digest had photos of a praying mantis eating a hummingbird, show at this link. While trying to google the link to the photos, I came across a YouTube video of a mantis with a hummer. Man oh man, it can be a bug eat bird world out there: