How many times have you seen birds sitting on the power lines running alongside the road? An image may come to mind of a whole row of pigeons or doves happily lined up along a wire. We’ve always been told never to touch an electrical wire because we will get zapped, and know that electricians have to go to great lengths to ensure their safety. So how do birds sit on power lines without getting electrocuted? They seem to be just fine hanging out on the wires all day, what’s their secret?
How do birds sit on power lines without getting electrocuted?
To put it simply, birds can sit on electric wires for two reasons: their bodies are poor conductors of electricity, and they are only touching the wire, not creating a circuit with another low voltage object.
Let’s dig deeper into these two statements. Don’t worry, we will keep this easy to understand.
Electrical conductors
Electricity is the flow of electrons. It is a form of power produced when electrons flow through a conductor from a source to an end point. This is why we refer to the flow of electricity as a ‘current’. Think about it like the flow of water in a river. The ease at which these electrons can flow through an object depends on what the object is made of.
For example, wood is a very poor conductor of energy, which is why you will see many poles that hold up electrical power lines are made of wood. Copper and most metals are good conductors, through which electricity flows easily. In some instances, a non-conductive substance can be used to insulate against the power of the electricity.
Electric wires are made of copper, because electrons can flow through copper very easily. Birds’ bodies, however, are poor conductors of electricity. All the cells and bones and tissue in their body don’t conduct electricity well, certainly not as easily as a copper wire.
Electricity is going to follow the path of least resistance. This means, the path that requires the least amount of energy to travel along. So one of the reasons the bird remains unaffected by the electricity is because the electrons are going to continue to travel along the path of least resistance, which is the highly conductive copper wire and not the poorly conductive bird.
Energy Moves From High to Low
How conductive or not the birds body is, is only half the story. Electricity is also looking to travel from high voltage to low voltage (high energy to low energy). Similar to how water will always flow downhill, and a hot cup of coffee will always cool, without outside interference electricity will want to flow from high to low voltage. In the case of birds on the wire, the area of low or no voltage is the ground. So the electrons are also looking for a way to get from the high voltage wire, to the low voltage ground.
Birds sitting with both feet on the power line only touch the line. Both feet are resting on equal voltage, so the electricity has no path to the ground through the bird, no path to an object of lower voltage through the bird, and sticks to the copper wire. There is no reason for the power to flow through the bird, so it is safe from the electricity and can sit on power lines quite happily.
However, if the bird had one foot on the wire and one foot on another object with lower voltage, then it is creating a bridge where the energy will want to flow.
Electrocution
Electrocution is injury (or even death) that occurs when a lot of energy passes through the body. If the bird were to have one foot on a power line, and the other foot on the ground or a second wire that had a lower voltage, the electrons would use the bird’s body as a bridge. Even though we said previously that overall the body of the bird is a poor conductor, energy will still readily travel through the body if