I have been reading up on many of the little insect eaters and am surprised how many of them use spiders webs in their nest building. Undoubtedly spiders would also be food for the birds.
This has made me more aware of the links from one type of animal to the other. It is amazing how interlinked everything is in the environment.
I will be sure to leave the spiders in my garden well alone so they can continue to provide nesting material and food for the birds.
Regards
Wollemi
Wollemi, you've hit on a principle that is so important in conserving our bird life. Everything is dependent on everything else so to conserve birds in an area it's so important to try to replicate the ecology that once existed before many of them were significantly changed by humans. E.g, native grasses are important breeding places for a number of butterfly species. Butterfly lavae are important food for a variety of critters, including birds. Unfortunately, most of our native grasslands have been destroyed and this, I believe, has been a critical factor in the decline of our butterfly populations. In turn, this affects our bird populations.
So preserve those spiders, Wollemi.
Woko
I once saw a bird taking fur from a koala and taking it back to its nest :-)
The koala didn't seem to mind.
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
Another excellent example,soakes.
New Holland honeyeaters pick pieces from our disintegrating door mat during nesting time. It makes me feel...like a doormat. But it shows what great opportunists birds (& other animals) are. Just like humans, really.
Woko
I thought little Willy was lost when he flew into my large shed and was worried that he'd get stuck in there but he was an expert and just getting some daddy long leg spider web for his nest. lol, theres heaps in there and by the way it doesnt get sprayed with insecticide as i really dig those spiders.
In areas where we dont put up with spiders we remove them to outside.
Early in spring, when my dogs shed their winter coat, I brush them outside. All the little birds come and pick some up for nesting. I'm never sure, if that is a good idea, as I have tried to make it wet, and found it is NOT water repellant.So, the question here is: Should I leave the dogs hair or not??? Very inerested in your thoughts!!! (if it soakes up water, it won't be good for the as nesting material?)
M-L
I reckon itll be fine as long as its natural stuff because the birds then know what theyre dealing with.
Stuff i clean up and dont leave around is man made fibre types and thread that can tangle birds up like a net.
When I had my German Shepherd and he lost all his double coat as the warmer weather came in NZ, the sparrows would come down and all had little moustaches as they flew back to line their nests LOL It was very cute. The noisy miners here have shredded the nylon clothesline in my garden and ripped up the fibres underneath for their nests.
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Hi Snotty,I'm with you on the spider's side!! We have a house full of cobwebs!(LOL) The big spiders , we trap under a glas, big enough not to squish their little legs, then we take them outside. Somehow I get the feeling, they tell all their mates that our house is spider friendly. I think there are a few more every time they come back!?
M-L
How true Wollemi, just yesterday I needed to fish a ladder out from behind the shed. I spied a small curled leaf hanging amongest the various webs. Upon closer inspection there was a nest of half pin head sized spiders runing around in the panic of unexpected mass movement. I took great pleasure in re-hanging the webbed leaf in a tree only centermeters away.
Also came how from a bushwalk last weekend to find a huntman spider 90mm round just hangng out in the top of the ruksac, it too moved into the garden, hopefully he/she finds a little friend. Something must be working around here, just this morning the wife woke complaining about all the dam birds making noise. I love it, sleep is overrated anyway.
Ipswich Shire Eastern flanks
Spiders give me and my family the creeps except for Daddy Long legs. Every summer I go hunting for Red Back spiders outside my daughter's bedroom window and kill the females. I only ever find one female and that's usually by chance. They prefer a dry, hot climate nowhere near moisture.
Generally, though, I'll leave all the other spiders alone. If spotted the sparrows, magpies and honeyeaters will eat them. Lots of birds eat spiders. As for cobwebs I've yet to see any taken by birds. I'm sure they do but I just never see it. I've seen birds take dead grass, feathers, human and dog hair, kangaroo fur straight from a kangaroo, coconut fibres from my hanging basket (male magpie does that) and other odds and ends, including the backing strands of my carpet rug whilst hanging on the clothes line (red wattlebird done that). Birds will take just about anything for nesting material.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)
Interesting read and I've just noticed how old this thread is.
This is a female red-backed fairy-wren collecting spiders web for nesting material.
Samford Valley Qld.
yeh is a little old, but no need to re-invent the wheel either. Plenty of old pages full of interesting threads.
Ipswich Shire Eastern flanks
The outside of my house has lots of spiderwebs, obviously we are not fastidious housekeepers. I often see small birds like wrens, pardalotes etc collecting webs for nests. The mistletoe birds love fluff from "lambs ears" plants.
I rarely see big spiderwebs in my garden , I think a spider in a web is just too exposed to the birds. I work in vineyards a lot and see a lot of "vineyard spiders" which have found a niche under the protection of the bird netting.
Far cry from the world I work in, barely a leaf on the driveway, let alone a spider web. And with McHedges or happy plants all being useless, no spider would bother to venture in anyway. Just the way the new owners like it, sterol and modern.
I remember as a kid there was a big wolf spider that made it's web just outside the window where the TV was. I was hanging out one day, and the spider was out in the daylight, and this butcher bird I think came in, hovered, and plucked it from the centre of the web. Big spider gone, just like that. Was pretty cool to see, even it was a bit nasty.
I know mowing the lawn, or moving dirt around, it's really quite amazing how many speiders live in the grass. Where I was always taught in trees and in webs.
Ipswich Shire Eastern flanks