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Archive for October 25, 2012

Avian Digestion

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What happens to food after a bird swallows it? It may be stored in their crop, a pouch which is actually an enlarged part of its esophagus that some species of birds (and bees, fish and earthworms) have, or it may go directly to their stomach.  Birds have a two-chambered stomach.  The first chamber, the proventriculus, secretes acids that help break down food, including bones. A shrike’s well-developed first stomach chamber can digest an entire mouse in only three hours!  From the proventriculus the food goes into the second chamber, which is referred to as the gizzard, before entering the intestines.  The gizzard is a muscular organ which grinds up tough food, sometimes with the help of grit that some birds ingest.  The gizzard grinds the gravel and stones against the nuts and seeds, a process which smashes the food.  Wild turkeys can actually pulverize walnuts in their gizzards!  In some species, the gizzard remains small and insignificant during the summer when their diet consists of soft food such as flesh, insects, or fruit, but it grows more powerful during the winter when seeds are their main food.

October 25, 2012 | Categories: Adaptations, Animal Diets, Birds, October | Tags: , , , , | 6 Comments