Second giant bird-devouring spider strikes

A week after pictures of a mammoth finch-eating spider made news around the world, photos of a second Australian spider snacking on a bird have emerged.

Townsville residents Tom and Judy Phillips have supplied ninemsn with photos of a giant golden orb weaver spider eating a double-barred finch in their backyard.

"It was a big spider," Mr Phillips said.

The pictures resemble Atherton retiree Les Martin's photos, featured on ninemsn last week, of a golden orb weaver eating a different kind of finch.

In the Atherton attack, the spider "pumped poison into the dead bird's head" but later gave up on its feast.

According to Mr and Mrs Phillips, their spider completely devoured its feathered prey.

Before that, the spider had wrapped up the bird in the web, totally encasing it.

"You couldn’t see any of the bird by the end of it," Mr Phillips said.

Then it ate the entire carcass.

"It took three days to finish feeding on it," Mrs Phillips said.

Greg Czechura from the Queensland Museum identified the bird in the Phillips' photos as a double-barred finch about 10cm long.

"The bird was caught in the web. By the time we noticed it, it was dead," Mr Phillips said.

"How long it was there [before the spider came along] is a bit unknown."

Mr Phillips said the ordeal unfolded in an open greenhouse in their backyard in Kelso, a suburb of Townsville, in northern Queensland.

It was not the only frightening brush with nature to take place in the greenhouse.

"We’ve had plenty of big snakes in there before," he said.

Cases of spiders eating birds in Queensland were rare, and Mr Czechura attributed the apparent increase to "urban sprawl" compacting spider habitats.

"If there was something serious going on we would know about it," he said.

A more likely explanation for the perceived upsurge was "increased awareness of the natural world" and "accessibility to digital cameras", according to Mr Czechura.

"There's no sinister co-conspiring of the golden orb weavers to take out the local bird population," he said.

He also suggested the golden orb weaver has bigger things to worry about.

"The butcher birds and spangled drongos are stunningly efficient at pulling spiders out of their hidey holes and webs," he said.