From an early point in your life, you probably learned about the dangers of electricity. You know not to put your fingers into electrical outlets. You know not to use electrical appliances near water. You know not to climb utility poles.

So it may have puzzled you the first time you saw birds and other small animals, such as squirrels, running along and even sitting for long periods of time on electrical wires high up in the air. At times, electrical wires can be filled with dozens and even hundreds of birds.

Are they getting shocked while they sit there? They must not be, right? After all, you don’t hear any screeches or see puffs of smoke and feathers. There’s no smell of roasted bird in the air. So what’s the deal? How can birds sit on electrical wires and not get shocked?

Electricity flows by the movement of electrons through conductors. The copper wire in electrical wires is a great conductor of electricity. Copper allows electricity to flow easily along its surface.

Electricity flows along the path of least resistance. Birds don’t get shocked when they sit on electrical wires because they are not good conductors of electricity.

Their cells and tissues do not offer electrons an easier route than the copper wire they’re already traveling along. As a result, the electricity bypasses the birds and keeps flowing along the wire instead.

Another reason why electricity will bypass a bird sitting on a wire is because there’s no voltage difference in a single wire. Electricity flows from areas of high voltage to areas of low voltage. Electricity flowing through a single power line at 35,000 volts will continue along the path of least resistance and bypass birds.

If the bird would touch the ground while sitting on the wire or flap its wings and touch another electric wire with a different voltage, then it would get shocked and likely die by electrocution. This is because its body would become a path for the electricity to reach either the ground (no voltage) or a place with a different voltage (another wire at a different voltage, for example). This is why power lines tend to be high in the air with plenty of space between the wires!

This your theory erh...
Ok what then happened to those bats that get electrocuted

A bird died today from electrocution in my area. OP how do you explain that? I'm sorry I don't have pictures

Judeoxide:
This your theory erh...
Ok what then happened to those bats that get electrocuted

Bats get electrocuted because they hang from one line and touch another. This lets electricity flow through them. Birds touch only one line and they have more resistance than the wire so the electricity doesn't flow though them

This theory of yours is faulty, so many unanswered questions.
my answer to why birds and other animals can stand on naked electric wires without being electrocuted, is that the scales on their legs are insulators, they act like the rubber hand gloves used by electricians

LEERICIST:
A bird died today from electrocution in my area. OP how do you explain that? I'm sorry I don't have pictures

What species of bird was it?

smartestrichie:
This theory of yours is faulty, so many unanswered questions.
my answer to why birds and other animals can stand on naked electric wires without being electrocuted, is that the scales on their legs are insulators, they act like the rubber hand gloves used by electricians

The equation V=IR, where V is voltage, I is current, and R is the resistance of the conductor in question, explains it. This is what we call Ohm's law.
See below for a (simplified) model of an electrical circuit, sans bird:

[img]http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-4d9ac5a02e536040dd955c1755dafe4d?convert_to_webp=true[/img]

V is actually the voltage DIFFERENCE between two points on the line (V2-V1=delta V). So this equation is better described as (delta V)=IR. Current can ONLY flow when there is a voltage difference between two points. If V2-V1=0, then I is zero. In our model above, the voltage difference would be the positive to negative flow across the resistor. The resistance R would be the resistance of the conductor.

So, how does this apply to our bird friend?

Let's take a look at a typical bird:

[img]http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-7938fe138267ab8d4a8a7a3eaf78946f?convert_to_webp=true[/img]

As you can plainly see, his legs are close enough together where delta V between his legs is essentially zero. And, if the bird is not grounded (that is, he's not touching a metal pole or conductor with his little wings, he's just standing on the line like he's doing here), then he is at the same potential as the conductor-which translates to no or at best a very miniscule delta V between the bird and the line, which means little or no current will pass through the bird.

Remember also, that the bird is also an insulator/resistor of sorts-if the voltage difference is tiny, like it would be here, what little current that exists because of that really tiny level of delta V between the bird's legs would not be enough to overcome the bird's natural level of insulation.

With all that in mind let's present the electrical model for the bird on the wire:

[img]http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-c996f119f3eefc5ebf5f6b4a3c209c83?convert_to_webp=true[/img]

R2 would be the wire, and R1 would be our bird friend. The current would split according to the resistance level per Ohm's law -but again, since we are talking about a near zero voltage differential across the R1 resistor (which, again, is our bird friend), that current would be pretty much zero across R1-the bird's body. All the current would go through the reistance R2, which would have more of a voltage drop across it.

Now, if the little sucker touches a grounded pole or conductor, then it's poof!

CC: lalasticlala

lol OP I don't know the first thing about birds.

KingPharaoh:


What species of bird was it?

LEERICIST:
lol OP I don't know the first thing about birds.

Your claims would have been flatly debunked had you a name for the birds' species

CAPSLOCKED:
I'VE WITNESSED BIRDS GETTING ELECTROCUTED SO MANY TIMES. .. HAHAHA.

And you have undoubtedly seen birds countless times stay alive after sitting several minutes on high tension wires, even when NEPA are doing promo.

If your claims are true, which I strongly doubt, then I would conclude that those birds got electrocuted because they hang from one line and touch another.

Hmm. And mr odere got eletrocuted when he wanted to fix his light illegally what happened?

CAPSLOCKED:




NO

Are you in any way related to Lai Muhammad?

KingPharaoh:


What species of bird was it?

which one come be species again naa? oya name they species u were talking about