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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Flocks of sparrows or swallows, calmly perched on thick power transmission lines carrying thousands of volts, are a familiar sight in both cities and villages. However, few people know why the birds are not struck by electricity.
It would seem that any contact with such cables should be fatal, yet the birds feel quite comfortable, History of Simple Things explains.
The secret lies not in the extraordinary biology of the birds or insulation on their feet, but in basic laws of physics. An electrical current is a directed movement of electrons, which always chooses the path of least electrical resistance and arises only when there is a potential difference (voltage) between two points.
When a bird perches on a single wire, both of its feet touch a section with exactly the same electrical potential. Since the bird's body has a much higher resistance than a copper or aluminum cable, electrons preferentially flow along the metal, bypassing the living organism.
Why birds are not struck by electricity: watch the video
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The operating principle is entirely different when a person standing barefoot or in regular footwear touches the wire on the ground. The ground surface potential is zero, while a high-voltage cable can reach tens of thousands of volts. In this case, a colossal voltage difference forms, and the human body becomes a convenient conductor through which current instantly travels to the earth with catastrophic consequences.
The bird, however, hangs in the air and has no contact with the ground, so a closed circuit simply does not form. This phenomenon can be easily imagined with a fast mountain river. The metal wire is a powerful current, and the bird on it is a tiny dry island in the middle of the flow. The water continues on its usual path and does not rise to a ridgeline, because it has no exit.
Nevertheless, birds are not completely invulnerable to electricity. The real danger arises when a bird simultaneously touches two different objects—for example, it sits on a wire and accidentally touches a wing, beak, or tail of a metal support, cross-arm, or neighboring conductor with another phase. At such a moment the circuit closes, and an immense current flows through the body.
That is precisely why large birds with broad wingspans—storks, buzzards, herons, owls, and eagles—are the ones most often affected. To protect rare species, energy companies install insulating housings, protective polymer pads, and warning markers on high-voltage poles to minimize the risk of a tragic contact.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "На дроті – смертельна напруга, але птах живий: чому його не вбиває струмом". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Channel 24.
