Birds

As long as they only touch one conductor, there is no current flow. If two birds, sitting on adjacent conductors were to touch, they'd be blown up by the force of the current flowing through them.

Because they wear rubber boots.

It happens all the time....sometimes there are consequences....

"

Electrocuting Eagles Costs PacifiCorp $10.5 MillionCASPER, Wyoming, July 14, 2009 (ENS) - One of the largest electric utilities in the West pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Casper to illegally killing golden eagles and other migratory birds in the state. PacifiCorp, which does business in Wyoming as Rocky Mountain Power, was ordered to pay over $10.5 million for killing eagles and other protected birds.

The plea agreement came after the federal government charged PacifiCorp with 34 misdemeanor counts of unlawfully taking golden eagles, hawks, and ravens in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. This law makes it illegal for anyone to kill a protected bird by any means without first obtaining a permit.

The violations stem from accidental electrocutions of protected birds that occurred in proximity to the utility's power lines in rural areas of Wyoming.

PacifiCorp has killed 232 eagles in Wyoming from January 2007 to the present. The company, which pleaded guilty to all 34 counts, has been sentenced to pay a $510,000 criminal fine and an additional $900,000 in restitution and will spend the next five years on probation.

During this period, PacifiCorp has been ordered to spend $9.1 million to repair or replace its equipment to protect migratory birds from electrocution in Wyoming."

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2009/2009-07-14-092.html

I learned that crows mate for life as a result of electrocution. A pair of nesting crows in my neighborhood would perch on top of the pole transformer on garbage pickup day, scouting for spills. One drizzly day I was watching them making noise up there and one of them took off, touching his (or her) wet wing tips to two terminals. Instant fried crow. The mate sat up there and squawked next to the dead body for weeks afterward until the utility finally came around to remove it. That display of loyalty prompted me to ask about that at the local Audubon society. If a crow's mate dies, the other one apparently does not take another mate.

Crows are very intelligent. We had tons back on the farm.

They assign look outs to watch while the rest of the murder feeds.

I could walk into a field where a murder of crows was feeding, and they'd ignore me, unless I was carrying my rifle. They knew that I shot them because they ate our apples.

If armed, as soon as I broke out of the tree line at the edge of the field, they'd all be gone in a flash.

There is virtually no voltage difference between nearby points on the same wire.

It's Really shocking ...............that's why Crows are so Black......!!!!!

Electric Shock is current floiwng thro the body. For the current to flow, there should be sufficient potential difference between the two legs of the crow, to cause enough current flow thro the body of the crow to cause electrocution. As the distance between the two legs of the crow is small, no big potential difference exists and as such no shocking "current" flows.

so does this principle hold with human beings. for eg; if human being hangs onto a single HT line wont he get fried?

Yes & No.

If a human happens to hang on to a HT line with both hands clutching the HT line ajar, he/she would definitely get fried as the current would flow from his/her left hand to his/her right hand thro his/her heart.

If the human being happens to hang on to a HT line with only one hand clutching the line, then depending upon the clearance between his feet & ground/any grounded structure in the vicinity and depending upon the atomospheric conditions (moist, etc.), he/she may or may not get a shock depending upon the m,agnitude & duration of the capacitive charge & discharge currents of the leakage capacitance between the line & ground.

"If a human happens to hang on to a HT line with both hands clutching the HT line ajar, he/she would definitely get fried as the current would flow from his/her left hand to his/her right hand thro his/her heart".

if thats true why is it not happening to birds. even they have heart right? why wont the current flow from its left leg to right through its heart?

Maybe "ajar" means another adjacent line, not the same line.