Electric wires carry high voltage electricity from the power plant to the substation and then to the home. Then why don't birds get electrocuted when they land on them?

Electricity tries to run from areas of high voltage to low voltage. When a bird lands on one wire, nothing happens because the wire has an even voltage throughout. The key here is that the bird's legs and the wire are equally charged - they're at the same voltage level, or "potential," as the engineers say. If the bird puts one claw on one wire and the other claw on another wire, the wire voltages are different and an electrical current will pass through the bird's body and that will surely kill it.

When electricity goes through your body, we call it an electric shock. The same thing will happen to you if you were flying a kite and it gets tangled up in an electric wire. The high voltage in the wire will try to go to the ground but first, it will go through you. You could be seriously injured, so be sure you fly your kite in a wide, open space where there are no overhead electric wires.