![](https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CEDW_harrisonhills2013_sgosser.jpg)
28 October 2021
Have you ever noticed that birds gulp their food? Of course they don’t chew — they don’t have teeth — but much of what they eat still has to be “chewed” before they can digest it.
That’s where grit comes in.
![](https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/gravel_crop_wiki.jpg)
Birds chew with their gizzards, a specialized stomach with thick muscular walls that grind up food, often aided by particles of stone or grit.
![](https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/diagram_bird_digestive_system_gizzard_noarrow_pgc.jpg)
Birds regularly eat grit to aid their digestion, as Ecco is doing in the photo below.
![](https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/pitt_2021-10-06_14-40-35-35.jpg)
So when you see birds swallowing things whole rest assured they’re chewing inside … in the gizzard.
![](https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/RTHA_w_prey_carondelet_wiki.jpg)
p.s. Other animals have gizzards too including crocodiles, alligators, mullet (a fish) and earthworms.
(photos from Steve Gosser, Wikimedia Commons, and the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)
I agree with the other comments that I always am learning new things from you, Miss Kate. I am so appreciative. However, I have to say after reading this…..I may pass on the turkey gizzard this Thanksgiving!! 🙂
Mullets? They jump six feet out of the water where I live in coastal NC, and for months. Just tapering down now, in fact. I read that it’s not completely understood why they do it. And now they have gizzards?