Why can birds stand on electricity lines and not get shocked?

Answer 1

A shock is caused by a flow of current through a body. So for the bird to be shocked there would need to be a current running through her body. There is no current running through the bird's body for two reasons. The first reason is that the bird's body has a high resistance, so the current would rather pass through the wire instead of the bird. Since the current can go through the wire or through the bird to get to the same point, you can think of the wire as being a highway and the bird as a one way mountainous country road. It is easier for the current to pass through the highway (or wire) than it would to take the harder mountainous route (the bird). The second, and more important, reason no current passes through the bird is that in order for current to flow through the bird there must be a voltage across the bird's body. Since, the bird is careful to have both feet on the same wire there is not enough voltage across the bird's body to allow current to flow. If the bird were to touch the wire and at the same time the ground or some object connected to the ground, it would receive a deadly shock.

Answer 2

Birds, when standing on power lines, only stand on one line. Therefore there is nothing to ground them, so the electricity does not pass through their bodies. You could stand (or hold on to) a power line and not be electrocuted, as long as you are not touching anything else, including another power line.

Answer 3

They are only touching 1 wire and not grounded.
Line repairmen use helicopters to work on transmission lines so that there is little risk of being shocked.
The lines are spaced far enough apart that a birds wings can't toch 2 lines at the same time.

Answer 4

The birds aren't grounded. However, if a bird stood on the power line right next to the poll and accidently leaned over and touched the poll. Well then you've got yourself dinner.

Answer 5

to get shocked you have you have something connecting you to the ground. Plus electricity doesnt travel up, so if they are on the top part of the wire they wont get shocked, occasionally a bird or squirrel will get on the grounded part of the wire, and if they touch the wrong part, they are goin down!

Answer 6

Wow, I read some of the answers and just had to laugh a little at the detail people put into it.

I asked a guy from a power company once and he said... insulated lines! The power/telephone lines used to not be insulated and birds did die on them. Now the lines are insulated to keep them from rusting and birds from dying on them.

Answer 7

Because the wires are insulated. It's when there is a break in the insulation or the wire comes down that they are very dangerous. More than just birds have been killed by downed power lines.

Answer 8

Because birds make no ground...

An electrical connection to earth. The part directly in contact with the earth (the earth electrode) can be as simple as a metal (usually copper) rod or stake driven into the earth, or a connection to buried metal water piping. Or it can be a complex system of buried rods and wires. The resistance of the electrode-to-earth connection determines its quality, and is improved by increasing the surface area of the electrode in contact with the earth, increasing the depth to which it is driven, using several connected ground rods, increasing the moisture of the soil, improving the conductive mineral content of the soil, and increasing the land area covered by the ground system. This type of ground applies to radio antennas and to lightning protection systems.

Answer 9

In order to get shocked the birds would need to complete a circuit from the "hot" side to the "ground" side.. since they are too small to reach both wires.. they are safe... but sometimes large birds can touch both wires with their wing.. such as buzzards or hawks, etc... and they DO get killed!

Answer 10

If you'll look carefully, you'll see they only stand on one line at a time. If the touch two at the same time, they will close a circuit, and then they Will get shocked. It happens with large birds, unfortunatetly.