Further down in the digestive system is the gizzard, an organ which helps to grind down food into small chunks. Although a great deal of muscle is used to accomplish this objective, much of the fragmentation occurs as a result of small stones, or grit, that the bird has eaten. Birds must regularly ingest small amounts of pebbles or coarse sand to keep the gizzard working properly.

The lower part of the bird's two-part stomach. It grinds and softens foods. Seed-eating birds may eat grit or small stones to help with grinding. In birds that eat fish or other meat, the gizzard molds indigestible material, such as bones and feathers, into compact balls (pellets) that are then ejected through the mouth.

The bird's version of a stomach. Since birds don't have teeth, they swallow small pebbles and other hard objects which sit in the gizzard and help to grind up food.

(giz´ erd) [L. gigeria: cooked chicken parts] • A very muscular port of the stomach of birds that grinds up food, sometimes with the aid of fragments of stone.

Muscular organ anterior of the stomach in the alimentary canal. In herbivorous dinosaurs, former presence is indicated by gastroliths.

A specialised part of the digestive tract with well muscled walls that is used to help break down tough materials such as plants. Most birds have a gizzard which helps to grind up seeds for example. They often supplement the action of the gizzard by swallowing gravel; when the gizzard walls contract, the stones are ground against the seeds and crush them. Many of the large herbivorous dinosaurs are thought to have had gizzards too.

thick-walled muscular pouch below the crop in many birds and reptiles for grinding food

a bird's digestive organ that uses thick muscular walls, thorny lining, and small rocks to help it crush food

a muscular pouch in the digestive system that allows birds and certain invertebrates to grind food down without using teeth

a part of a bird's stomach that contains these tiny stones

a thickened part of the alimentary canal in some animals that is similar in function to the crop of a bird

the muscular portion of the stomach which grinds up food

The second part of a bird's stomach. 754

A muscular enlargement of the digestive tract of a bird.

The muscular stomach of a bird. In hummingbirds, it is where tiny insects are ground up into digestible portions.

The muscular portion of the digestive system where food is digested. It is located immediately after the crop, and just before the intestine.

an organ located between the stomach and the intestines inside the chicken's body. The gizzard grinds the food of the chicken and serves as the "chicken's teeth."

The highly muscular, second enlargement in a bird's digestive tract that, together with the first enlargement, functions like the human stomach. If you dissect the dried, mummified remains of any nestling martin you find in the nests at season's end, you will invariably find the black, grape-sized gizzard completely impacted with broken glass, metal fragments, shells, and white quartz pebbles that the parents characteristically feed their nestlings for grit.

Organ for grinding food; usually found in animals lacking teeth or mandibles

The gizzard (also called the gastric mill) is the part of the stomach that grinds up food (usually tough plant material), often aided by gizzard rocks. Many birds have a gizzard, as did some dinosaurs.

The internal organ of the chicken that collects grit and grinds food down.

An internal organ of birds. It has thick muscular walls and a tough lining. It crushes and grinds foods by muscular action and with pebbles or grit.

The gizzard grinds food one more time before it enters the stomach. Other animals (including birds and some dinosaurs) have been known to swallow stones to grind things up in their gizzards. But cockroaches have another set of little teeth in there to do the job (those would be tough teeth for a dentist to examine, huh?).

The organ in the chicken that grinds up the whole grains and food a chicken eats

An organ that contains grit for grinding up the grain and plant fiber a chicken eats.

part of the alimentary canal of fowl, whose function is to “grind” food, sometimes with pebbles swallowed for this purpose.

A gizzard is a specialized stomach with a thick, muscular wall used for grinding up food. It is found in birds, reptiles, earthworms, some fish, insects, mollusks, and other creatures. In certain insects and mollusks, the gizzard features chitinous plates or teeth.