Digestion a thin-walled expanded portion of the alimentary tract used for the storage of food prior to digestion. In some birds it is an expanded, muscular pouch near the gullet or throat. In adult doves and pigeons, the crop can produce crop milk to feed newly hatched birds. Certain insects may have a crop or enlarged esophagus. Herbivores have evolved cecums (or an abomasum in the case of ruminants). Ruminants have a fore-stomach with four chambers. These are the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. In the first two chambers, the rumen and the reticulum, the food is mixed with saliva and
Birds of the Amazon the Amazon rainforest is able to provide a home to thousands of birds with different survival needs. Amazonia is commonly dived into eight areas of endemism (districts): Napo, Imeri, Guiana, Inambari, Rondonia, Tapahos, Xingu and Belem. Although each area is similar in ecological characteristics, their biotas were assembled differently. With the progressive destruction of the rainforest comes a loss of habitats for many species of birds. As of today, over twenty percent of the original Amazon rainforest is gone, mostly as a result of deforestation and human encroachment. Human-made clearing has had important effects on bird species. Two to four