Morphometric Studies of the Esophagus and Stomach in Two Types of Birds Have Different Feeding Behaviors

Aim of the work: The present work aims to investigate the morphometrical, aspects of the esophagus and stomach in two different Egyptian birds having different food habits.
Materials and Methods: The animals under investigation are Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), and Hoopoes (Upupa epops). These birds were caught from Abou-Rawash. Constituency and the Nile Delta in Egypt. The birds were dissected the esophagus and stomach were fixed and stained for the morphometric and microscopic comparative study.
Results: From the current results, it was revealed that there are some morphometric differences between the esophagus in kingfishers and hoopoe. The esophagus of kingfishers is shorter than hoopoe, while the stomach (proventriculus length and wide) are moderately bigger than in hoopoe species. Stomach in the two studied birds is divided into two parts, glandular or true stomach (proventriculus) and the muscular stomach or gizzard (ventriculus). The glandular stomach of both kingfisher and hoopoe showing moderate differences in length and width. The relative size of these organs was variable according to the food habits and this may be the reasons of the differences between the two stomachs, so, in the birds that eat hard food items as in kingfisher proventriculus (bird species under investigation) was wide due to the high number of glands component.