Why does birds are not getting an electric shock when it sits on the electrical wire?

What is current?

Quick answer:

Flow of electrons

The electrons are charges; we are getting the energy of electrons. So electron total flows occur in electricity.

What is voltage?

Quick answer:

 The potential difference between the two ends of conductors.

We need electron charges for electricity. But the flow of electrons force is not enough to make a potential difference. If we have no potential difference we don’t get electrons flowing continuously.

What is power?

Power = voltage × current

We are getting current through potential differences so that is totally called power. We are talking usually, about current or voltage or charge. These words are a misconception. Power is the correct word for electrical energy.

Why need a good conductor for electricity?

Because free electrons are used for conductivity. Conductors have free electrons and that free electrons are used to conduct external electric motive force to the devices. If we use a good conductor, the conductivity is high because of more free electrons.

First, we should understand these points, and then come to the topic.

Why do birds are not getting an electric shock when they sit on the electrical wire?

A bird sitting on a live wire will get a shock only if the electric current passes through its body. We can compare the flow of electricity through a body to the flow of water.  Like in water flow, electric current always flows from a higher potential level to a lower potential level.

The two wires in an electric post are kept in different potentials. One wire, which we call live, will be at a high potential, and it is the phase wire.

The other wire is neutral and its potential is zero. On sitting on the live wire, the bird’s potential will also be raised to the same potential as the wires.

We saw birds sitting on the electrical line casually but sometimes it’s getting shocked. Do you think why it’s happen rarely?

If it comes in contact with the neutral wire, a current will pass through its body from the live wire to the neutral wire. Then the bird gets an electric shock. The bird can sit on the live wire without getting an electric shock as long as it does not touch the neutral wire.