Bird Term: Crop

The crop is a part of an animal's anatomy connected to the digestive system. It is used to store food before digestion. It is common in birds but also found in some species of snails and earthworms, and was present in some dinosaur species.

Cedar waxwing on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge
Cedar Waxwing with bulging crop by USFWS Mountain-Prairie

In birds, the crop is an expandable pouch found at the throat and often visible externally, especially when full of food. Not all species of bird have a crop. In pigeons and doves it is used to store food but also to produce a substance known as crop milk to feed their young.

Golden Eagle on Seedskadee NWR
Golden Eagle with full crop by USFWS Mountain-Prairie

Scavenging species like vultures and condors will often feed until they are completely full, and then fill their crop for later digestion. The crop gives the birds a chance to store food for later digestion which is advantageous when it is unknown when the bird will be able to feed again.

Other raptor species, like hawks, eagles, and ospreys, have a crop, but owls do not.

Birds that regurgitate food to their young use the crop to soften the food items before giving it to their chicks.

baby Red-shouldered Hawk
Baby Red-shouldered Hawk with full crop by Amy Evenstad

Related Bird Gifts

Comments

Be the first to comment

Comments with links or HTML will be deleted. Your comment will be published pending approval.
Your email address will not be published

Crane Week 2018: Introduction

Join us in the following days as we celebrate all things cranes! It's time for our second ever Crane Week! Our first Crane Week was back in 2015. We chose today to kick off Crane Week because the birds are honored each year in...

Let The Good Birds Roll

We've recently added three new Birdorable birds from the roller family: the European Roller; the Lilac-breasted Roller; and the Blue-bellied Roller. There are twelve species of roller extant today. Rollers are...

Baby Birdorable: White Stork

If you think our Birdorable birds are cute as adults, what about when they are babies? Here are some baby photos (shared via Flickr) of the White Stork. Baby White Storks are hatched in huge nests across parts of Europe and western parts of Asia. The nests...

2020 Bonanza Bird #32: Christmas Shearwater

Today is Christmas Day! And it’s the last day of our 2020 Birdorable Bonanza. Our final bird is the Christmas Shearwater, a species of shearwater found around tropical and subtropical islands in the Pacific Ocean, including Christmas Island. This bird has a festive...