GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
tags: spider eats bird, golden orb spider, chestnut-breasted Mannikin, birds, avian, WTF, wow
Golden Orb Spider eats a chestnut-breasted Mannikin in Australian garden.
Image and story: Daily Mail.
This picture and story is so creepy that it makes my skin crawl to see this at the top of my blog. But it's also very strange -- the stuff of nightmares!! -- so I had to share it with you. If you are an arachnophobe, as I am, this will defintely give you nightmares. But if you are insatiably curious about the natural world, as I am, follow the link for the story and for more gruesome images -- just in time for Hallowe'en.
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Wow. I don't know if they were THAT big, but I've seen some massive golden orb spiders in the field in Florida. The spiders themselves could be larger than your hand, but the webs were insane. I've seen many whose webs would span trails that were at least 20 feet wide. Just insane.
Posted by: jake | October 26, 2008 8:46 PM
Here's a photo of two of these golden orb spiders (male and female?) with a human hand for scale reference.
http://www.mit.edu/~nagaj/photo/0701australia/br20.jpg
In context
http://www.mit.edu/~nagaj/photo/0701australia/index4.html
Taken in Brisbane, Queensland.
Posted by: Thomas | October 26, 2008 9:00 PM
Ordinarily - the Daily Mail is so unreliable one should be skeptical if they report anything more unusual than 'water is wet'. But it's reported in the torygraph as well.
In addition - the Australian golden orb weaver and a few other Australian spiders have been known to eat small birds on occasion. There's also a (much smaller, but still big for a spider) communal spider in the pacific northwest that occasionally eats small birds.
Posted by: llewelly | October 26, 2008 9:03 PM
The Smithsonian in Wash. DC has a preservered birdeating tarantula in the museum that is really creepy and huge!
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/invertebrates/facts/factsheets/
goliathbirdeatingtarantula.cfm
Posted by: Tabor | October 26, 2008 9:16 PM
That is so cool.
Posted by: Moses | October 26, 2008 10:42 PM
llewelly -- this story has been reported in close to one dozen newspapers around the world. i just grabbed the first photoessay that had pictures guaranteed to give me nightmares.
oh, and thanks for the additional nightmares, thomas and tabor!
Posted by: "GrrlScientist" | October 26, 2008 11:44 PM