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Electrocuted Birds Are Bursting Into Flames and Starting Wildfires (gizmodo.com) 109

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Electrocuted, flaming bird carcasses are falling off of power lines and causing wildfires across the U.S. This surprisingly common phenomenon has been responsible for at least three Colorado wildfires so far this summer. These events are not isolated. A 2022 study found that electrocuted birds caused 44 wildfires in the contiguous United States between 2014 and 2018. That study was led by Taylor Barnes, a biologist who now works for electric utility company EDM International. In the paper, Barnes wrote that "avian-caused ignitions" happen when a bird sits on an overhead power line. For reasons that can vary from case to case, sometimes the bird receives a powerful electrical shock, setting its feathers on fire. The dead or dying bird then falls, and, on occasion, lands in some brush or other flammable material.

"Sometimes they burst into flames," Barnes told 9News, an NBC affiliate in Colorado. "Sometimes they just fall dead. Not every bird that is electrocuted will fall to the ground and start a fire." Odds are, you've seen birds perched on electrical wires countless times without witnessing spontaneous sparrow combustion. Barnes said birds just going for a sit pose no threat. Because the birds are not touching the ground, the electricity in the power line has no way to the ground and is not dangerous to them. It's only when the birds get into a part of the power infrastructure where a circuit can be completed that they end up crispy. [...]

It's not clear what happened to the birds involved in Colorado's other two recent fires, which occurred on July 31 and August 27. No people were injured or killed in the incidents. According to Barnes' 2022 study, the area of California coast known as the state's Mediterranean ecoregion has the highest density of wildfires set off by avian ignitions. In the paper, he advised authorities in the area and other fire-prone regions to look into modifying power poles to prevent these electrocutions. Given the devastating effects fires can have and how common they've become, it's surely worth the investment to keep our feathered friends in flight and not on fire.

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Electrocuted Birds Are Bursting Into Flames and Starting Wildfires

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  • Ok (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 06, 2024 @11:38PM (#64769728)

    How do we blame this on Biden or preferably Obama?

  • This actually happened a few hundred yards from my parents house.
    • This actually happened a few hundred yards from my parents house.

      Yea... but finally we have a cooking method that doesn't need fire or an appliance!

      AND we have found a use for unused airspace between conductors!

    • by sodul ( 833177 )

      A few years ago I was in front of my house and heard a loud zap-boom, looked up and a crow was falling, on its back, to the ground, just bellow a power pole.
      The poor bird was half burned with the wings spread open. The wingspan was clearly wide enough to reach across the electrical wires.

      A couple of neighbors got out to investigate the noise and that was the end of it.

      I can see how this could start a wildfire.

    • by echo123 ( 1266692 ) on Saturday September 07, 2024 @03:34AM (#64769910)

      This actually happened a few hundred yards from my parents house.

      When I was visiting a friend who worked in an old government building in Washington DC I couldn't help but notice all the pigeon poop outside her window, all along the edge of the building, so I commented about it.

      She pointed out the high voltage electrical cable that ran the length of the building. The maintenance staff though it would electrocute the birds, but they were completely unphased and nothing happened to them at all.

      Immediately I realized the problem and said to her, "That's AC power and those are DC pigeons".

      • by PPH ( 736903 )

        but they were completely unphased

        I see what you did there.

      • by shanen ( 462549 )

        Good crop of Funny for this story and your joke is a contender for best, but you have me wondering how the wires were placed. If the actual goal was to electrocute birds you'd want to run pairs of wires, probably one charged and one grounded, and somehow positioned to make it easy for birds to get arc welded...

  • Awww... (Score:5, Funny)

    by penguinoid ( 724646 ) on Friday September 06, 2024 @11:42PM (#64769734) Homepage Journal

    Is someone complaining about "hot chicks in your area"?

  • Stuff happens (Score:4, Insightful)

    by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Friday September 06, 2024 @11:46PM (#64769738)
    Wildfires are about having the right conditions for them. Less so what finally causes the spark.
    • by kqs ( 1038910 )

      But there will always be conditions for wildfires. We can't change that. We can do some management to improve areas near humans, but that's all.

      We also cannot remove all sources of sparks, but again, proper management can limit the sparks. In this case, maybe changing the wire configuration to ignite fewer birds. We cannot remove either the dry conditions nor the sparks, so we need to manage both.

  • Correction (Score:4, Funny)

    by radoni ( 267396 ) on Friday September 06, 2024 @11:48PM (#64769740)

    "Barnes said birds just going for a sit pose no threat."

    Barnes aren't real.

  • by Firethorn ( 177587 ) on Friday September 06, 2024 @11:50PM (#64769744) Homepage Journal

    Okay, a bird touching only ONE conductor should be safe, as they are not grounded. It is when they go to jump, flap their wings, that there's a possibility of touching two conductors at different potentials, causing an arc and a crispy flaming bird.

    The solution is simple - you don't put conductors of sufficient voltage difference close enough for the biggest bird you expect to be in the area (go a bit bigger just to be sure), to cause a short at full wing extension.

    Of course, this means we have a lot of legacy wires too close to each other, which is not a cheap fix.

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot&worf,net> on Saturday September 07, 2024 @01:11AM (#64769812)

      Okay, a bird touching only ONE conductor should be safe, as they are not grounded. It is when they go to jump, flap their wings, that there's a possibility of touching two conductors at different potentials, causing an arc and a crispy flaming bird.

      The solution is simple - you don't put conductors of sufficient voltage difference close enough for the biggest bird you expect to be in the area (go a bit bigger just to be sure), to cause a short at full wing extension.

      Of course, this means we have a lot of legacy wires too close to each other, which is not a cheap fix.

      Usually it's not birds, but squirrels.

      And honestly, it's actually pretty hard because everything is grounded. Usually things like pole transformers have little cages to prevent squirrels from touching it (whilst standing on the transformer top, which is grounded). But you may have situations where they're touching the wooden poles. Typically wood is high resistance, but certain weather conditions have it that they can be extremely conductive, so they may be walking along the wire, then they go to the pole and because it's grounded and conductive - zap!

      Plus, birds do fight, and they're not often always watching where they're going - they may run into a power line and the bird they're fighting with touches another powerline. That row of birds sitting neatly on a power line? You can bet there were probably a few conflicts along the way.

      Also, this isn't typically a huge problem until recently - birds, power poles, power lines, squirrels, they've been around for over a century. The technology has evolved and gotten better (e.g., polymer insulators instead of porcelain which can crack and being ineffective). Making it a much different problem because this sort of things should be happening for decades.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Usually it's not birds, but squirrels.

        In our area it's usually fruitbats with their 6ft wingspan. Usually the claws on their wingtips catch on the lines so they're stuck up their sizzling away until their liquid content has boiled off.

      • That row of birds sitting neatly on a power line? You can bet there were probably a few conflicts along the way.

        Thus putting the "row" in the "row".

      • by higuita ( 129722 )

        only if we had ways to avoid squirrels from climbing to forbiden places ?! hint: search for "anti-squirrel device"

      • I have chickens, I'm aware of the little tuffles you can get in deciding who roosts where.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by gearloos ( 816828 )
      The birds land fine. It's when they begin to take off and spread their wings for max lift that causes the fault between 2 conductors. The bird never has to touch the wires. At voltages of 16k to 500k volts they only need to be feet from the wires. A lot 8n the article goes against things I have been privilege to over the last 25 years and when these poor birds do get electrocuted, they don't get shocked and fall dead or dying, they get either blown to bits or completely vaporized.Just in my experience.
      • That's what I said - problem generally happens when they jump and extend their wings to take off. Though yes, some are high enough potential to air gap to the bird in the right situations.

        Still means that an extra few feet would make it drastically less likely. Fighting would complicate matters.

      • by jonadab ( 583620 )
        What precisely happens to the electrocuted birds, depends on the voltage.
    • by sodul ( 833177 )

      California Condors have a wingspan of about 9 feet ... that's a pretty big gap. The crow that got zapped in front of my house had a 2-3 feet wingspan.

      Ignoring the extra cost to do handle the larger spa, it means that the trees will need to be trimmed even further back.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Are plyons in the US really small? I'm the UK they are large enough that the gap can't be bridged by birds etc, and they are high enough that most types of tree aren't an issue (although they do keep them back anyway).

      • by higuita ( 129722 )

        while those are big birds, i too think that this is more related to USA power grid being badly designed, that problem in Europe is lot more rare.
        Probably because closer to civilization we buried the power lines and high voltage have huge isolators between the pylons/towers and the power wires. Around me there are many storks nests on top of high voltage power towers, most in places where there are already "baskets" for them to start doing that (and avoid doing too close to the power line). There are places

        • by higuita ( 129722 )

          see this example, if you zoom, you can actually even see some empty baskets, for helping the storks building the nests in the right places

          https://c7.alamy.com/comp/2B1E... [alamy.com]

          also notice the hanging high voltage power line, even if a stork lands in the power line, it is not tall enough to get even near of something dangerous

          • by higuita ( 129722 )

            and the dangerous places (above the isolator) we have some (inverted) spikes that make land and nest build hard, so avoiding that nests are build over those areas

      • by jonadab ( 583620 )
        At what point do we decide that using air as an electrical insulator no longer makes sense? And if we do end up drawing that conclusion, how much is it going to cost to equip all those cables with solid insulation, and make the towers that hold them up strong enough and close enough together to handle the extra weight?
    • Watch this (you can jump to 2:30):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      Part of the problem here is when so many birds congregate on the wires that they make them droop more. And then the other is when they take off in a mass and make the wires bounce around.

      • Interesting, hadn't realized that could be a problem as well, well, time to add stronger to the list along with more separation.

        Though that doesn't look like a high voltage transmission line, but a more local distribution one.

        Solutions can vary by system and location.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Okay, a bird touching only ONE conductor should be safe, as they are not grounded. It is when they go to jump, flap their wings, that there's a possibility of touching two conductors at different potentials, causing an arc and a crispy flaming bird.

      The solution is simple - you don't put conductors of sufficient voltage difference close enough for the biggest bird you expect to be in the area (go a bit bigger just to be sure), to cause a short at full wing extension.

      Of course, this means we have a lot of legacy wires too close to each other, which is not a cheap fix.

      I was about to ask, other countries have high voltage power lines and birds, also prone to wildfires, why is this not an issue there. In Australia in particular which has a fair few wildfires (bushfires) and plenty of avians.

      Fun fact, one way the Australian Authorities (SES or State Emergency Service) track bushfire fronts in Australia is by monitoring when power lines stop responding. Becoming less useful as most power lines are buried these days.

  • Plot Twist (Score:3, Funny)

    by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Saturday September 07, 2024 @12:11AM (#64769758)

    The arsonists are starting fires with birds now.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Black Parrot ( 19622 )

      Revised Jewish Space Laser Theory:

      The laser is murdering birds; the fires are just incidental.

      • Birds have already been murdered by the government. What's starting the fires are the surveillance drones that replaced the birds.

  • Had a fire in the backyard start and burn along the chain-link fence line last summer (2023).

    The fire department came out and thought I had been burning leaves but after determining that wasn't the case, they said the line above the fence had dropped a hot spark into the debris on the fence line. There wasn't a bird carcass. It may have been a tree branch or a leaf.

    The fire kind of burned the dirt along the fence which was about 50/50 dirt/leaves builtup from mowing and leaves blown against the fence.

  • A new variant of Angry Birds?
  • by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Saturday September 07, 2024 @12:24AM (#64769774)

    This is just a temporary problem. After a few generations the birds will evolve to become super-conductors who can bridge a circuit without any ill-effect. When that happens we can use them to power a whole new generation of microchips!

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday September 07, 2024 @12:37AM (#64769788)

    A 2022 study found that electrocuted birds caused 44 wildfires in the contiguous United States between 2014 and 2018.

    44 wildfires... over the course of five years? Given there are more than 60,000 wildfires in the US every year, on average [usafacts.org] - a grand total of nine a year seems pretty isolated.

  • This reads like the onion. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.
  • Windmills. It's all about windmills killing birds. And there's no sun at night, so you have to go without power after the sun goes down if you have solar panels.

    Don't you people know anything???

    • Windmills. It's all about windmills killing birds. And there's no sun at night, so you have to go without power after the sun goes down if you have solar panels.

      Don't you people know anything???

      Hey, I get most of my Kentucky Fried Chicken at night. Don't you take away my power lines! You'll have to pry it from my cold, dead ha--wait. (/redneck)

  • Put the power lines underground. Not only will it be safer for the birds, but there's less likelyhood that storms will interrupt the power supply.

    • Put the power lines underground. Not only will it be safer for the birds, but there's less likelyhood that storms will interrupt the power supply.

      God damn it. If you do that, how am I going to get my free fried pigeon? God knows with Bidenomics it's all I can afford now! Damn you, Joe! Where the hell is CowboyNeal?

      • by sodul ( 833177 )

        Put some bourbon in a half eaten jar of peanut butter, mix well, spread that on a nearby tree. Squirrel stew for dinner.

        • Put some bourbon in a half eaten jar of peanut butter, mix well, spread that on a nearby tree. Squirrel stew for dinner.

          That sounds like a pretty good recipe, but with the current economy I can only afford the really cheap stuff, and I usually drink the first bottle before I even get out of my detached garage. And that's after I push the damned thing in because I can no longer afford gasoline. Up the hill. Both ways. Afterwards, I'm kind of like this [youtu.be].

  • ...It's just their way.

    Perhaps the wires could be insulated, a bit, even half of them?
    • The cost to insulate would be huge, meaning huge electric bills.
      Insulation would also mean heat retention, and heat is already one of the biggest causes of service disruptions.

  • That is better than chicks and fire!

  • It shouldn't make me chuckle but here we are
  • ...in some states birds are executed by firing squad, gas chamber or hanging, according to local laws.
  • This is a hoax. Birds aren't real.
  • In the same period, there were over 300,000 wildfires [noaa.gov]. 44 is a very tiny fraction of that.

    Not that we shouldn't stop electrocuting birds or doing something about wildfires, but this curiosity isn't the argument for either.

  • A study from 2022 is "news"?

    Only on slashdot.

    News for ageing nerds.

  • KFC have started opening new concessions under power lines.
  • This almost reads like an Angry Birds subplot.

  • Since birds aren't real, and were replaced by DARPA in the 1970s, we should be able to update the firmware.
  • I thought it was windmills that killed birds, (and gave whales migraines). According the the DFL, the Domestic Feline League, it's windmills that kill birds, cats just like to socialize with them.

    I'm sure the Fossilistas will claim that it's only renewable electricity that kill birds, not natural gas, oil, or lovable coal.

  • Birds, particularly larger ones, like to perch on crossarms. That provides a grounded structure and places them near the energized conductor. The largrer birds are using these positions as vantage points for prey. So, often near open fields. The solutions include installing bird exclusion devices. Or to mount a second crossarm well above the conductors that is safe for them to use.

    • by higuita ( 129722 )

      yes, better design solve most problems. See this example around here:

      https://www.alamy.com/storks-n... [alamy.com]

      while storks build many nest in high voltage power lines, the towers are build so that is not a issue. Many already include already baskets to be easier to build there and so they use it instead of other places. The lines being suspended also helps a lot as even in the power line, they aren't tall enough to reach any dangerous zone.

      If the problem is a place to spot for preys, make that spot higher and the o

      • by higuita ( 129722 )

        this one you can actually see the baskets if you zoon

        https://c7.alamy.com/comp/2B1E... [alamy.com]

        • by PPH ( 736903 )

          In case anyone is wondering: In the above h.v. line photo, the highest (elevation) wires are static shield lines. Grounded to the towers, they produce no hazards to the storks contacting them. The high voltage conductors are suspended below the crossarms a sufficient distance to prevent birds on the arms from reaching them. At any rate, the voltages on these lines are so high, birds avoid even approaching a single conductor in mid span like they do on lower voltage systems. This is due to the corona dischar

  • The birds are committing suicide because society is not accepting that they self identify as cats. This intolerance has to stop!
  • Birds aren't real [wikipedia.org], so they can't be the problem.
  • Has anyone considered, you know, fixing the actual issue that is causing birds to be electrocuted? This is the symptom of an actual problem, but I feel like no one has brought up actually fixing whatever is going wrong that causes this to happen, instead we're all jumping right to more extreme solutions before even figuring out what the problem is or attempting an actual fix of the core issue.
    • I was thinking that if you make foam insulation (insulating versus electricity, not heat) with a smooth surface (so the birds don't try to take some home) and a slit down one side, they'd only need to be put over the wires out to one bird-length from ground. It would probably be possible to design and use a drone that could safely install the foam. Someone would still probably fail to do that successfully.
  • ...these fires are obviously the result of LiPo battery failures.

  • Was Trump onto something when he said that 'murica just needs to rake the forests? MARA!
  • I guess now the birds are trying to get in on the action.

  • After reading the post, I clicked on the URL to the study about the bird feathers catching on fire and starting wild fires (provided link: http://tandfonline.com/doi/ful... [tandfonline.com]) However, that paper seems to be about the paleontology of sharks and crocodiles eating sea cows in Miocene Venezuela. I think that the paper this post refers to is actually this one: https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.13... [doi.org]

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