Interestingly, birds can land on electrical wires, covered or not, without getting shocked. Apparently it causes great surprise when analyzed, because when a bare wire is touched it releases a great electrical discharge. With birds it's different.
The distance between the feet of birds is very short, not enough to generate an electrical potential between two points (DDP). The shock, in this way, only happens when the electric current enters through a certain place and leaves through another, that is, it closes the cycle of electricity that is the conduction of energy. The electricity released into the bird will not give it an electrical discharge because it will not be touching any object other than the wire, however, if the bird becomes unbalanced and touches another object, it will receive the current electric.
If a person, out of carelessness or curiosity, picks up a thread with both hands, nothing will happen either; as long as she's like a bird, not touching anything but that wire.
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Now if you take a wire like this and give it a potential difference (touch something - another wire, pole...) the shock will happen.
In locations where there are Tuiuius, the wires of the electrical network are farther apart from each other. His landing on these wires does not cause the shock as in the bird in the photo; but his wing is very big; on landing or when flying, his wing may touch another wire generating a ddp and causing the passage of current through the bird or as it is better known - the famous electric shock.
By Gabriela Cabral
Brazil School Team
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
ALMEIDA, Frederico Borges de. "Why don't birds usually get shocked by electrical wires?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/curiosidades/por-que-passaros-nao-tomam-choque-fios.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
