You're looking at a Golden Orb Weaver dining on a snared chestnut-breasted mannikin, near Atherton, west of Cairns, Australia. The photo is real, that bird is spider food, and that spider is now a permanent resident (demi-lord) in my ever growing nightmare-scape.Golden Orb Weavers don't typically eat birds, but that's small consolation to the erstwhile mannikin.
Thanks for the article, Betsy, Tracy, Theodosia, Alex, Miro, Carrie, Lee Ann, Laura, Tanya,
Christiaan, Peter, Ida, and Liz.
And, here's another photo of it...
I can't believe noone else has commented...Congrats on the baby boy! I'd tell you to post pictures, but that would be kind of mean to put him on a blog dedicated to ugly, lol. And thanks for the nightmare material. We all sure are gluttons for punishment.
ReplyDeleteWell, the picture really freaked me out, but the news about your son is awesome! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Dad!! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd...this lastest spider pic is stuff straight from my nightmares. I'm gonna need therapy now...
Aaaargh! Those are the spiders I had to deal with down on the Gulf Coast! I'm so very glad I never saw anything like this before moving out of there. {shiverrrrrr}
ReplyDeleteAARRHH! I would like to say I was wondering if it was photoshopped, but reality seems a metric ton creepier than any photoshop. I think I saw this spider two weeks ago in a nightmare... my dreams are escaping!
ReplyDeleteThere's a good chance that it's not as bad as it looks. The bird most likely died of something other than the spider; it either got entangled in the web and died of exhaustion/dehydration/stress or it died outside the web and its corpse tumbled into the web. For the spider, I guess it was like manna from heaven, though. Waste not, want not, as my grandmother would say.
ReplyDeleteProof that Australia is really a science fiction writer's acid dream of oddities.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the little one!
Yikes! I still adore spiders, though.
ReplyDeleteI read up on this when it happened. Apparently Golden Orb Weaver's make incredibly strong webs; the spider sits back and waits for the bird to exhaust itself before it moves in for the "kill." We have a broken lock handle on the back door (still have the deadbolt) and a big hole in the door while it's being repaired. This afternoon my husband made me put tape over it because he said he dreamed a tarantula crawled through the hole, went into Poe's cage (our people-loving parakeet) and "sucked out her brains." ::hee hee:: Oh, I'm sorry. Was that an out loud giggle? :)=
ReplyDeleteTheir webs are really strong and beautiful. They can span several metres and most have a beautiful golden colour to them.
ReplyDeleteI just hate walking into them at night(when they build their webs). It's like walking into a web of sticky elastic!!! And I know the spider is somewhere nearby, planning to do something to me for destroying its house... *shudder*
OMG! The first photo on this site that has made me look away! OMG! Make it go away! argh!
ReplyDeleteThat spider won't need to eat soon again :)
ReplyDeleteI wonder what liquified bird taste like, chicken soup?
If you want something to tell size... the bird is About 4 to 4 ¼ inches or 10-11 cm Weight - 17 grams.
ReplyDeleteThis is just horrifying I tell you!
Congratulations on your new baby!!!
Thanks for all the congratulations.
ReplyDeleteYvonne: I hope your parakeet is able to keep his brains.
All we need are zombie budgies. Great.
ReplyDeleteIt's harder to do with the second picture where it's obviously a small bird, but if you just look at the first picture and imagine that bird is a goose you can really gross yourself out! AAAAH! GIANT SPIDER!
ReplyDeleteI totally saw a goose or duck when i first looked at the top picture too! uggggh that would be one huge spider...
ReplyDeleteNOn ci credo!(it's impossible)
ReplyDelete