Trichonephila edulis
9 Golden orb weaver at Symonston, ACT
Identify this sighting
| Trichonephila edulis | MichaelMulvaney | 26 Apr 2021 | |
| Unverified | Christine | 26 Apr 2021 |
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Significant sighting
MichaelMulvaney noted:
26 Apr 2021
I have seen photos of finches caught in a golden orb weavers web - but this is teh first local example that I am aware of
User's notes
A Golden Orb weaver, and the web was quite golden/yellow in colour, and strong. I photographed and put this one up specifically because an Owlet Nightjar had been caught in a strand of this spiders web, at the edge, and was spotted by a lady (Reeni), who called for help, and rushed to catch the ONJ in her jacket. I then broke the strand of web which was tangled around the birds wing. After a trip to the vet the bird was fine, and released back here. But that shows the strength of the web, as the nightjar is a medium sized bird, and it was caught on just one strand!
Oh, just added a photo of the bird when it was rescued from the web.
5 comments
30 Apr 2021
Just wanted to add something here, as I saw that this was posted to Facebook, and that Reeni added a comment that the bird was caught on some kind of string, not in the web. When I broke the thread that the bird was dangling from, when Reeni had caught the bird in her jacket, I also thought it was some kind of string, and after she left for the vet a few of us went to remove any thing left there, but there was only web. It was not in the main big web, but had been dangling from a thread right at the edge of the web. I was amazed at the strength of one strand of web, and I think the colour had made me think it was not web.
30 Apr 2021
Did anyone take a photo of the bird stuck on the strand of web? If so would make a good media storey.
30 Apr 2021
Michael, no, Reeni spotted it and ran toward it and grabbed it in her jacket, just as I arrived there, it was still caught/attached at that point and I broke the strand it was hanging from, and then asked if I could take a quick photo of the bird. I did see the bird trying to fly, and attached by the one thread caught on it's wing, and I recognised it as a Nightjar straight away. Reeni also posted to Facebook when she released the bird, and there is a photo of it on a branch before it flew to a hollow.
Luke, I had recorded the Owlet-Nightjar in my eBird list.
Luke, I had recorded the Owlet-Nightjar in my eBird list.
Location information
- Coordinates 149.139028-35.353477
- Maps Callum Brae
- Places Symonston, ACT
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- 23 Apr 2021 09:24 AM Recorded on
- Christine Recorded by
- 12mm to 25mm Animal size
Collections
- Significant Christine Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr Trichonephila edulis Orb-weaving spiders (several families) Spiders
Species information
- Trichonephila edulis Scientific name
- Golden orb weaver Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 914m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
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Synonyms
Nephila edulis
Record quality
Quality score
5 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Description
- Additional attributes
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location