Evolution has played a major role in the way the animals developed. And it is especially apparent when you look at the many different species of animals around the world, and see the various assorted ways that they have evolved to eat and process the foods that they intake to sustain their bodies. And the bird is a very special case.
The digestive system of birds is different from humans and most mammals in a number of ways. For one, birds do not have teeth. This poses a problem for them when it comes to digesting their food. Teeth serve the useful purpose of breaking up the food into smaller particles so that the body can digest them more easily. But, without teeth, how can this be done?
As the bird species evolved throughout millions of years, they managed to come up with their own unique resolution. Rather than breaking apart the foods in their mouth by a chewing action, they let their stomachs break the food apart. However, in order to do this, the stomach is broken up into two sections, known as chambers.
Take the example of a bird eating a seed. The bird swallows the seed whole. The seed first drops down into the front chamber. This chamber consists of chemicals and their function is to chemically process the food to help break it down. It works much like the saliva does in human mouths. The food is liberally coated with these digestive juices until it is well mixed.
Following that, the food is passed on to chamber number two. This is the chamber that processes the food physically as opposed to chemically. This is similar to the way that we physically process the foods in our mouth when we chew.
The way it works is simple. The seeds and whatever other foods that the bird has eaten has already been softened up some by the digestive juices from the first chamber. And a large portion of these juices still remain in the foods. The bird is able to contract and relax the second chamber walls so that they grind up the food mixture between them.
In addition to this, however, the bird has another ace up its sleeve. And that ace is grit. Grit is nothing more than rough granules of sand or stone. To help it to digest food in the second chamber, the bird eats grit. As the walls of the chamber open and close to smash into each other, the grit that the bird has swallowed helps it to break up the food much better than if the food was the only thing present.
Food can be broken up a lot easier when it is smashing into rough pebbles or grit than it can with just smashing against itself. And this is why you will often see birds eating stones or sand. It's not for nourishment. It's to help them digest food.
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