Sons learn from fathers, but that’s not just true for people. It’s true for birds, too.

Something has gone wrong for an endangered black and yellow bird species in Australia, the regent honeyeater. Researchers found that 12 percent of male regent honeyeaters in the study failed to learn any songs specific to their species. Only a few hundred of these birds remain, so it’s a severe problem.

The males are not learning the love song they need for courtship with females. The males have to learn it from the father birds. But when young males don’t have proper role models, they learn the wrong songs from the wrong birds.