When a bird sits on a high voltage cable, its feather tend to spread. Why ?

Question

Physics : Electrostatics

Answer 1

roseriver.bear is right.  Whoever the piece of c**p is who gave him the thumbs down should keep his opinions to himself.

Answer 2

Birds spread their feathers for various reasons. It may be to attract a mate, cooling off, removing mites etc however it has nothing to do with the fact that it is on a high voltage line.

Answer 3

Like charges repel each other and all the electrons move into the bird and cause the feather to spread. Vandegraaf generators are good at showing this.  

Answer 4

well it could be realsing its body heat or it could be getting a small volt through its body like if you put your hand on one of those electric balls

Answer 5

when a bird sits on high voltage cable [keeping both legs on one cable]

the electrical charge in the cable flows from the body of the bird this results in formation of static electricity in the body of the bird.this results in spread of birds wings

Answer 6

The bird could simply be capturing air to insulate itself and stay warm while it is sitting in the wind. It is no longer generating the same amount of body heat that it was when it was flapping it's wings and flying.

Answer 7

  It is due to staic electricity. The magnetic lines of force around the current carrying conductor induces an opposite charge on to the feathers and the fibrelike material of the feather spreads out. It is just like the hair on our hand standup when brought near the switched on TV picture tube.

Answer 8

simply it is a balancing act.to balances it body like a man walking on a rope.when it spreads it wings it position is easily balanced.