Trichonephila edulis

9 Golden orb weaver at Symonston, ACT

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Identification history

	Trichonephila edulis	26 Apr 2021	MichaelMulvaney
	Unidentified	26 Apr 2021	Christine

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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

Christine wrote:

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.

natureguy wrote:

30 Apr 2021

It might be worth putting a record in for the Owlet-Nightjar as well.

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

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.

Christine wrote:

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.

natureguy wrote:

1 May 2021

Thanks Christine. Very interesting record, thanks for sharing!

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