If you really want to know how good upland bird hunting can be in Idaho, take a look at its woodpeckers. Yes, that's right, I said woodpeckers.

"Your dog's on point again," Dave Schisler called down the steep Salmon River mountain.

"Move in on her," I shouted back. "I'll bat cleanup on the fly-bys." I could see Dave's torso over the rise of rocky soil held loosely together with a scattering of bunchgrass, dried yellow cheatgrass and annual weeds. Ahead of my partner, the green crown of a hawthorn hinted at water, which in turn hinted at birds, and Dave was clambering toward it where, I assumed, my white setter was pointing.

I thumbed the Citori 20 gauge open and counted two bright, brass discs staring back at me. After clicking the action closed, I wiped sweaty palms on the last dry spot on my shirt and aimed my left foot at the tree. If any birds came out, they'd probably make a quick, down-canyon getaway. I kicked away the small, broken volcanic debris under my right foot and, like a baseball hitter, screwed it in. As Dave walked in for the flush, I heard him slip, and the scrape of gravel spooked the birds--lots of birds.

He recovered in time to get three quick shots off, and then I was faced with a dilemma: Should I spend my two shots on the half dozen chukars diving past me or on what seemed to be dozens of valley quail flushing everywhere?

I chose the bigger birds, shot behind the first, recomputed its angle of descent and salvaged my last opportunity with a solid hit. Two quail zipped past my left shoulder as I fumbled for more shells. I managed to lock the action in time to scratch down the last cock quail to leave the scene. My white setter saw the fall and scrabbled down for the retrieve.

"Get any?" I yelled up.

"Two chukars, I think," Dave called. "No, this one's a Hun." Three species on one flush, just as the woodpeckers predicted.

North America hosts a colorful array of woodpeckers, and if you look at where they live, you'll see that essentially five species live in New York but 11 live in Idaho. Both states are mountainous and heavily forested. Both host large wilderness areas and are situated at roughly the same latitude. New York gets higher annual rainfall.

So why does Idaho have more woodpecker species? Habitat diversity. The dramatic changes in geography and rainfall across the Gem State create many more ecological niches than are found in New York.

From high sage deserts in the south to temperate rainforests near the Canadian border, Idaho provides a rich landscape ripe for exploitation by woodpeckers. And this same diversity has produced an embarassment of riches for hunters who love upland game birds.

The steep mountains bordering the Snake and lower Salmon rivers in west-central Idaho are prime examples of habitat diversity. From top to bottom they metamorphose from dense conifer forests (spruce grouse and blue grouse) to streamside deciduous brush (ruffed grouse) to dry grassland slopes (chukar and gray partridges) laced with brush pockets and creeks (valley quail.)