Why don't birds get shocked when initially landing?

From vol1 ch3, it shows a bird on a power line not getting shocked.

Why doesn't the bird get an initial shock upon landing? Before landing, the bird should have a different charge from the wire right? And upon landing, does no current pass through at all or is it simply an insignificant amount?

 

The charge transferred would be proportional to the voltage and the capacitance of the bird to ground. Since the bird is high in the air, this capacitance is very small and the amount of charge transferred is therefore also small. But I would suspect that if a bird landed on one of the super high tension (>300 kV) lines with the tall towers and 3 foot insulators, there might be enough charge transfer to give a tingle. But that's just a guess. Have you ever seen a bird land on a wire from one of the tall towers?

 

Isn't this rather based on the electrostatic potential?

But yes correct, a bird can not accept much of an electric charge due to it's small size.

I have in mind these electrostatic influence machines, where you use metallic balls with isolated handles.