Do all birds have gizzards?
What we call a gizzard is the muscular part of a bird’s stomach. When a bird swallows food, it goes from the throat to the esophagus. Some species have an expanded, thin-walled offshoot or pouch in the esophagus called the crop where they can store food before it’s sent the rest of the way through the esophagus to the stomach. (Pigeons and dove adults produce a food for their young called crop milk in the crop.) Birds all have two parts to their stomach. The first is called the proventriculus or glandular stomach, where digestive enzymes are secreted to begin the process of digestion. This part of the stomach is very much like our stomach. The second part of a bird’s stomach (a part we humans don’t have) is the gizzard or muscular stomach. The gizzard is very thick and muscular in some species, such as ducks, gallinaceous birds (those related to chickens such as grouse, quail, and turkeys), emus, and doves. Most of these birds eat hard items such as seeds and nuts. Birds with thick giz
