The 2003 Black Mountain fire just outside Missoula, Montana, allowed me to discover more nuanced facts surrounding fire, like how different bird species become relatively common only under certain combinations of fire severity and time since fire. Most bird species benefit from forest fire, but the different species do best under different combinations of fire severity and time since fire. Data from our landbird monitoring program shows that it takes a high density of large, thick-barked, severely burned trees to attract the Black-backed Woodpecker, which is probably the most fire dependent bird in the world. Pre-fire and postfire logging activity negatively affects those species most dependent upon burned-forest conditions.