• Question: Why Don't Birds get Electrocuted when they land on electrical wires?

    Asked by thatonefatguy to Carol, Ellie, John, Philip, Rebecca on 2 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Eleanor Turpin

      Eleanor Turpin answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      I wondered about this for years!

      Electrocution is caused by lots of electrons passing through the body really fast and damaging cells on the way. The electrons will only flow when there is a potential difference between two points, but becuase both the bird’s feet are on same the wire then there is no potential difference so no current (electrons) flows. If the bird had one foot on the wire and one on the floor or another wire then there would be a difference and it would would get electrocuted.

    • Photo: Carol White

      Carol White answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Yep Ellie’s totally spot on! Birds can fly off the wire so usually don’t end up electrocuted. But squirrels have been known to have been electrocuted by have their front feet on the wires, and back feet on the wooden pole… ouch 🙁

    • Photo: John Welford

      John Welford answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      No closed circuit means no current flow. Like if you connect a bulb to only one side of a battery it won’t light.

      It’s not just birds either. Some power lines are serviced whilst they are still turned on by landing a worker on them using a helicopter:

      Not a job that I would want to do though!

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