Yep. It's definitely a golden orb weaver (the spider, I mean). They're harmless. Comparatively. Obviously not to birds, although I haven't had any chooks go missing lately...
I do admit, I don't like walking into an orb weaver web, they are very strong. Pretty, though - they're called golden orb weavers because in the sun the web shines like it's been spun from gold thread.
Our orb weavers are never bigger than the palm of your hand. That's the female - the males are the size of your fingernail. Last autumn we had a large web right over our back door area, right where it caught the sun. We watched that female work her way through a number of males over several weeks, then one day she was gone. Well, she WOULD have been highly visible and perhaps our birds are made of sterner stuff than the fluffy little thing from Cairns.
Until a few weeks ago, when I noticed some spider egg cases on a home-made windmill I had put near my massive tomato plant near the back door. These hatched out and they were thousands of tiny orb weavers. mother in law hates spiders, wanted me to spray them. But spiders are arachnids, they have book lungs as well as the usual spiracle breathing system of insects. So insect spray generally won't kill spiders, it just makes them cranky. I prefer spiders to be content and calm, thank you. The only way to use a can of insect spray to kill a spider, is to hit them with it.
If you see a golden orb weaver spider, you can recognise her by the black legs banded with gold, and the long, round abdomen. They're not sneaky spiders, unlike the funnelweb. The Sydney funnelweb is also very aggressive, they really do freak me out.
The orb weavers DO grow a lot bigger in the tropics. ALL spiders do grow bigger in the tropics. husband's uncle served in New Guinea on Kokoda in WWII. He tells stories of how you'd see a palm tree with two shadows... then one shadow would get up and walk away. I've never been quite sure just how much exaggeration there was, seeing the photo from Cairns (I have to send him that link!) makes me a bit anxious.
One thing for you to consider - that Cairns newspaper felt the photo was worthy of comment. So you can relax - this is NOT a normal occurrence.
I'm not sure I can look at an orb weaver the same way again...
We have hundreds in our yard, every autumn especially. Even in spring there are always 20 or 30. Bbut at least you can see them and I've never known anyone to be bitten by them.
I remember last winter, difficult child 3 watched the one by our back door "we called her Charlotte) eating a cockroach. Some of you may remember I mentioned it in the good morning thread once...
I'm off outside to check the garden. I think I'll carry a big stick (usually reserved for autumn). You just wave it up and down in front of you as you walk.
Marg
PS - I just checked. the bird in question is very small, average weight is 14 g. Our budgie weighs over 40 g, so the bird being eaten is a quarter the size of Buddy, our (still not full-grown) budgie. difficult child 3 reckons that if Buddy flew into one of those webs he would just tear straight through it, leaving a gaping hole behind.
Let's hope he never gets the chance, eh?