AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The gizzard is the second chamber of the stomach and it consists of very tough muscles. These muscles are used to grind and digest various types of foods. The muscles don’t do this process alone. Many birds pick up small pebbles, sand or grit while they are eating and these items end up in the gizzard.

Detailed explanation-2: -The gizzard is the mechanical stomach of a bird. It is located just after the true or glandular stomach in the gastrointestinal system. Since poultry have no teeth and swallow feed whole, this muscular organ, sometimes called hen’s teeth, mechanically grinds and mixes the bird’s feed.

Detailed explanation-3: -This is defined as the apparatus that allows the bird to prehend and swallow feed, a muscular channel (esophagus, proventriculus, gizzard, intestine) that transports the feed through the body, the salivary glands and pancreas that contribute digestive enzymes, the liver that secretes bile for fat digestion.

Detailed explanation-4: -The gizzard can grind the food with previously swallowed grit and pass it back to the true stomach, and vice versa. In layman’s terms, the gizzard ‘chews’ the food for the bird because it does not have teeth to chew food the way humans and other mammals do.