Why Don T Birds Get Electrocuted On Power Lines
Olivia Luz
People often ask why don t birds get electrocuted on power lines.
An electric shock is caused by a flow of current through a body. A bird s body is not a good conductor of electricity. The possible reasons are discussed in this article. When a bird is perched on a single wire its two feet are at the same electrical potential so the electrons in the wires have no motivation to travel through the bird s body.
There is no potential difference. Small birds are usually fine but occasionally larger ones such as crows may touch both pylon and cable and are then electrocuted. Their cells and tissues do not offer electrons an easier route than the copper wire they re already traveling along. So the current will bypass their bodies as their is a short path with very less resistance in case of copper wire.
This way birds and squirrel don t get electric shock because current don t flow through their bodies due to the same voltage level i e. If the bird sitting at this one potential was to also make contact with another object of different potential that bird would be completing a path to ground causing severe electric shock or electrocution. That s why electricity companies put plenty of space between cables. They re not good conductors birds are able to sit on electrical power lines because the electrical current essentially ignores the bird s presence and continues to travel through the wire instead of through the bird s body.
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Our bird is safe for the moment anyway. If a bird lands on a single power line at say 35 000 volts the lack of a voltage difference keeps it safe. No moving electrons means no electric current. So for the bird to be shocked there would need to be a current running through her body.
The reason that birds don t get electrocuted whilst they sit on power cables is that both the birds feet are at the same potential so the electricity doesn t flow through them. Fortunately this is a rare occurrence but there is another danger posed by power lines.
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