# Birds On A Wire
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 14, 2000, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153 "2000-01-14T19:12:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2000, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153/1 "2000-01-15T06:14:00Z")
I understand that high voltage lines are not insulated, yet birds can fly up and perch on these live wires. I was told that since a flying bird is not grounded, there is no electrical shock to the bird.
But, the bird IS at a different potential than the electric wire, so one would expect an electrical spark to arc to the bird. Yes?
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### Author:  [@Mr\_Thin\_Skin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Thin_Skin)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2000, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153/2 "2000-01-15T06:32:00Z")
Maybe a teeny one for lil’ birdies. For big birds, such as helicopters, there is a substantial arc. I saw a show a few years back about a company that performed high-tension line maintenance via helicoper. It seemed that ground-based maintenance was violently expensive, and using helicopters turned out to be relatively cheap. In the show I saw, they were replacing these wire separators. The helicopter had a little platform below the runners, some worker, dresses entirely in conductive clothing (Faraday cage type thing) reached out and grounded the helicopter to the lines. A one-two foot arc would form between the grounder and the power lines. After that, work proceded quickly.
So it has to do with the capacitance of the boid.
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### Author:  [@Mr\_Thin\_Skin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Thin_Skin)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2000, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153/3 "2000-01-15T06:34:00Z")
boid?
I saw a boid at toidy toid and toid
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### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2000, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153/4 "2000-01-15T06:52:00Z")
When I was very young, I saw some men working on an electrical high-voltage tower near my house once wearing suits as you described. I thought I was seeing “spacemen”, but never spoke about it. I figured there HAD to be some logical explanation.
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### Author:  [@Crystalguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crystalguy)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2000, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153/5 "2000-01-14T19:12:00Z")
If the bird has both feet on one wire, he is essentially just a bump on the wire. If the bird puts one foot on one wire and the other foot on another wire, he is a goner. (Difference of potential)
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### Author:  [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2000, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153/6 "2000-01-14T19:21:00Z")
The birds haven’t been to college and haven’t taken freshman physics, so they don’t know what’s supposed to happen to them. It’s like the coyote running off the cliff – he doesn’t fall until he looks down.
* * *
“To do her justice, I can’t see that she could have found anything nastier to say if she’d thought it out with both hands for a fortnight.”
Dorothy L. Sayers
_Busman’s Honeymoon_
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### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2000, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153/7 "2000-01-14T21:14:00Z")
CrystalGuy, but isn’t the bird at different potential when the bird approaches the wire to land? What a bug zapper it should make!
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### Author:  [@Crystalguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crystalguy)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153/8 "2000-01-14T23:32:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by Jinx:
> \*\*CrystalGuy, but isn’t the bird at different potential when the bird approaches the wire to land? What a bug zapper it should make! \*\*
If that was the case, no bird would survive landing on a wire. In order for current to flow, a circuit must be closed. A bird with one foot on one wire and one foot on another wire very effectively closes the circuit and current will then flow in a big way.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2000, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/birds-on-a-wire/6153/9 "2000-01-14T23:38:00Z")
## Because they can. They just do. But crystal guy is 100% right. That’s why you have to go to KFC to get fried pigeon. 😃
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