Table 2. Fatty acid composition (% ± SE) of the monounsaturated (MUFA) and polyunsaturated (PUFA) fatty acid diets plus mealworms, and of furcular fat from European starlings fed each diet for 4+ months.

Fatty acid concentration was directly measured by gas chromatography in lipids extracted from the diets and the furcular fat.

	MUFA		PUFA
Fatty acid*	Diet w/mealworms	Furcular fat (n = 13)	Diet w/mealworms	Furcular fat (n = 16)
16:0	12.52	16.61 ± 0.81	12.73	16.63 ± 0.65
16:1	0.00	3.34 ± 0.34	0.00	3.35 ± 0.32
18:0	1.38	2.69 ± 0.74	1.81	3.74 ± 0.56
18:1†	70.65	67.81 ± 1.18	51.70	56.73 ± 0.90
18:2†	14.65	9.54 ± 1.32	29.34	17.70 ± 1.17
18:3†	0.50	0.00 ± 0.00	4.11	1.75 ± 0.34

*Fatty acid nomenclature = C:D where C refers to the number of carbon atoms in the chain and D refers to the number of double bonds present. Other fatty acids found in <1% of the lipid portions of diet were 12:0, 14:0, 20:1, 22:6, 24:1.

^†Fatty acid composition (% ± SE) of furcular fat from birds fed MUFA diets was significantly different from that of birds fed PUFA diets, in 18:1, 18:2, and 18:3 fatty acids. .