Why don't birds get electrocuted when they sit on a power line?

There are two reasons:

1. The wire is insulated (like the cord that goes to a table lamp), so the bird never touches the part with the electricity.

2. Electricity goes from one place to another, like from the pointy end of a AA battery to the flat end. The bird on the wire is only touching one part of the electrical circuit, like only touching the flat end of the battery. There is no where for the electricity to flow, so the bird is not hurt.

I it’s think because the wires are coated in rubber like the cords on home appliances. @PerryDolia beat me to it.

For electricity to flow through something, including the bird’s body, there has to be a difference in voltage between two points on the body. The bird must be in contact with two wires for there to be such a difference in voltage; while there is an extremely small voltage difference between the two feet of the bird on one wire, the wire has much less resistance than the bird’s body and so almost none of it would flow through the bird, even if the wire were not insulated. This is why big birds, which can touch multiple wires at a time, are electrocuted much more frequently than small ones.

They do…One of the reasons you see power poles with offset arms along highways is because of all the eagles and hawks they have killed when the big birds massive wingspans touche two sets of power lines, completing a circuit.

They do. I saw one fall off the other day.

Because birds don’t conduct electricity, silly!

They have rubber feet.

They aren’t grounded. There isn’t a path for the electricity to go.

The high tension power lines are NOT coated with anything, it is bare metal. Since the bird is not grounded, or touching more than one line, they are not conducting any juice.

They are correct in that the lines are NOT insulated in most cases, that the birds do not complete a circuit in that they only touch one line at a time, also the part about the small difference between the bird’s legs is called step-voltage. Since the distance between contact is so small there is virtually no current that would flow through the bird. Larger animals such as cows usually get electrocuted for this reason- lightening hits the ground and travels through it, goes up one leg of the animal and exits another leg. At times this is enough of a potential difference to cause a fatal injury to the cow, This is a prime reason you don’t see cows sitting on electrical wires !!

Because the death penalty for sitting on a power line was repealed decades ago, at least if you are a bird.

@WhoReallyKnows that, and cows can’t climb power poles.

not cows, but deer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3f9SiTcZIM&feature=related