Watch: Giant tarantula eats entire bird in disturbing footage

The giant hairy spider can be seen wrapping its legs around the bird and eating it whole. Photo / Reddit

Footage of a massive tarantula eating a whole bird has been shared online, much to the disgust of arachnophobes everywhere.

The giant hairy spider, believed to be a pink toe tarantula, can be seen hanging from the wooden beam of a house and wrapping its legs around the bird and then eating the whole animal.

The video has been shared on Reddit and has since made headlines around the world, as people try to decipher what type of spider it is.

Photo / Reddit

Jason Dunlop, from the Museum of Natural History at the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Research in Germany, told Newsweek it is not common for tarantulas to eat whole birds but there are exceptions.

"I suspect the tarantula would have chewed up what it can," he said.

"It basically regurgitates digestive juices on to the prey and then sucks the liquified remains back in," he added.

"Whatever was left — bones, feathers — would simply be discarded."

The location of the footage is not clear but the pink toe tarantula lives in Brazil and the Amazon basin.

Pink toe tarantulas can fire off their leg hairs as a form of defence.