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Animal Nutrition and the Digestive System
Digestive Systems
Biology Textbooks Boundless Biology Animal Nutrition and the Digestive System Digestive Systems
Biology Textbooks Boundless Biology Animal Nutrition and the Digestive System
Biology Textbooks Boundless Biology
Biology Textbooks
Biology
Concept Version 7
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Vertebrate Digestive Systems

Bird digestive system

Bird digestive system

The avian esophagus has a pouch, called a crop, which stores food. Food passes from the crop to the first of two stomachs, called the proventriculus, which contains digestive juices that break down food. From the proventriculus, the food enters the second stomach, called the gizzard, which grinds food. Some birds swallow stones or grit, which are stored in the gizzard, to aid the grinding process. Birds do not have separate openings to excrete urine and feces. Instead, uric acid from the kidneys is secreted into the large intestine and combined with waste from the digestive process. This waste is excreted through an opening called the cloaca.

Source

    Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. This particular resource used the following sources:

    "OpenStax College, Digestive Systems. October 17, 2013."
    http://cnx.org/content/m44736/latest/Figure_34_01_06.jpg OpenStax CNX CC BY 3.0.

Related Terms

  • cellulose
  • proventriculus
  • peristalsis
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