• Question: why don't birds get electrocuted when they sit on electrical wires?

    Asked by jodlington to Kate, Kieren, Nicola, Rowena, Roy on 17 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      They’re not earthed or grounded so there is nowhere for the electrical current to run through them to. This means the current cannot use the bird as a “path”. It is like a broken circuit.

      Voltage – the pushing force for electron movement – isn’t what kills you. It is the current of electrons moving through. They want to go through the bird but there is no complete circuit to the ground, so they don’t.

    • Photo: Kate Nicholson

      Kate Nicholson answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      They always sit on top of the wires, so no completing the circuit to ground. The electricity can only flow if the circuit is complete. They can also see the UV light that is given off when the electric flows through the lines so know if there is any part that is damaged or likely to connect to ground and kill them.

    • Photo: Kieren Bradley

      Kieren Bradley answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      I’d just add that if it could stand with one foot on one wire and the other on a second they probably would get shock because there would be a voltage to push an electric current through them. You can see this if something metal fell on two wires and starts sparking.

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