Abstract <p>Animals can benefit from social information from both conspecifics or heterospecifics – but the use of information from these different sources may depend on context. To prepare for declining food conditions, some birds use advance warnings from food-limited 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 (<i>Loxia curvirostra</i>) are conifer seed specialists that exist as a suite of different ecotypes that overlap in diet but differ in foraging efficiency on and preference for different conifers. Pine siskins (<i>Spinus pinus</i>) 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 better conserved body mass during food restriction 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.</p> Significance statement <p>Animals can use social information to assess their environment and improve decision making. However, social information can be misleading and social information use is expected to be selective. The extent of selective social information use is relatively understudied. Red crossbills are a highly social finch with different ecotypes that have various degrees of dietary overlap. Red crossbills are known to become more resilient to starvation if they initially receive social information from food-restricted birds, possibly due to changes in gut physiology and how their brains process stressors. We tested responsiveness to a range of conspecific and heterospecific information sources. This study found that red crossbills only become more resilient to starvation if they receive information from the same crossbill ecotype. This indicates that red crossbills are highly selective in what types of information is used to make physiological adjustments.</p>