Animals can benefit from social information from both conspecifics and heterospecifics – but the use of information from these different sources may depend on context. To prepare for declining food conditions, some birds use warnings from food-restricted conspecifics to adjust their behavior and physiology. Here, we assess the extent to which this phenomenon occurs more broadly between conspecifics and heterospecifics with different degrees of ecological similarity. Red crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) are conifer seed specialists that exist as a suite of different ecotypes that overlap in diet but differ in foraging efficiency and preference for different conifers. Pine siskins (Spinus pinus) also eat conifer seeds, but are seed generalists that feed widely on other plants. To evaluate the extent of conspecific and heterospecific social information use in this context, focal red crossbills were housed adjacent to a neighboring bird that was food-restricted for 3 days before they were given an identical food restriction. Neighbors were a crossbill of either the same ecotype, a different ecotype with high diet overlap, a different ecotype with low diet overlap, or they were a pine siskin. Red crossbills given social information from a food-restricted neighbor of the same ecotype had better conserved body mass compared to those that were paired with different ecotypes or a pine siskin neighbor. This demonstrates high selectivity in social information use and suggests the costs of responding inappropriately are high.