This is what I'm saying. Chipmunks are not squirrels. I will do my best on this hill.

is "do my best" some kind of weird censorship-speak euphemism for "die"???

I think it's meant to convey "I'm not willing to _die_, but I do feel strongly"

Yes, it’s not a hill I’m willing to die on. It’s a hill I’m willing to defend until the cause is lost.

It looks like common names like "squirrel" or "chipmunk" that cover many different species are taken more as "squirrel-like animal" and "chipmunk-like animal". They are in the same family (Sciuridae).

Just be more specific and it is happy to count them. For example it counts Townsend's chipmunk, Eastern chipmunk, Siberian chipmunk, Douglas squirrel, Eastern gray squirrel, Western gray squirrel, and Red squirrel all as separate animals.

Similarly, it insisted to me that a pigeon is the same thing as a mourning dove. Not true! But your case is even more egregious.

"pigeon" and "dove" are both words for the same family of birds. The bird most people think of with the word "pigeon" is the rock dove (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_dove) or domesticated / feral variants of it.

Yep, but importantly "pigeon" and "dove" are not exactly interchangeable words, there is just no consensus for which is which.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbidae

Toads and frogs are another pair like this, where there is no clear distinction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog

True. But I did not ask about "pigeon" and "dove." I asked it about "pigeon" and "mourning dove" which are unambiguously different species. Different genuses, even. Zenaida macroura v. Columba livia.

Homing pigeon has a nice response :)

Well TIL prairie dogs are actually squirrels

There are some weird ones. It knew red-bellied woodpecker but not yellow-bellied woodpecker.