2006 was another eventful year for me on the birding front, including travel to 17 countries on 6 continents, the publication of the Southern African Birdfinder, of which I was a co-author, and becoming a partner in ZEGRAHM/Eco-Expeditions. As with previous years, over 2,000 of my total of 2,744 species came whilst guiding or scouting wildlife expeditions, with the balance coming from personal trips to Mexico and Cuba, and casual birding around home in South Africa. A January trip to Ethiopia brought the first big numbers of the year, reacquainting with the Abyssinian endemics and producing an unexpected lifer in the form of Dusky Babbler in the Omo Valley. Witnessing Ethiopian Wolves hunting and spending a full morning with over 300 Geladas was equally noteworthy. Guyana in February produced a plethora of cotingas, notably scope sightings of the incredible Crimson Fruitcrow, as well as Rufous-winged Ground-Cuckoo and 4 Jaguars in 3 days at Iwokrama. Crimson Fruitcrow, Guyana, copyright Jonathan Rossouw A personal trip to Cuba in March was mind-blowing on multiple fronts, with an intoxicating blend of friendly, resourceful people, spectacular music, killer mojitos and faded colonial grandeur enhancing the avian endemics. Personal top three were breeding-plumaged male Bee Hummer, numerous Blue-headed Quail-Doves, and the infinitely cute Cuban Tody. Cuban Tody, Cuba, copyright Jonathan Rossouw A whirlwind whip-around of Southern Mexico in April netted the lifer haul of the year (74), with knockouts like Rose-breasted Bunting, Lesser Roadrunner and scoped Spotted Wood-Quail alongside more subtle rarities like Short-crested Coquette, Flammulated Flycatcher and Sierra Madre Sparrow. Next big trip was Gabon in June. It produced a mouth-watering list of absolute stonkers, notably point-blank Grey-throated Rail, Maned Owl and Sandy Scops-Owl on day roosts, the exquisite Oriole Cuckoo-shrike, Lyre-tailed Honeyguide in full display at less than 50 metres, Dja River Warbler, settling bogey Black Dwarf Hornbill and Fiery-breasted Bush-shrike, and finally, 8 White-crested Tiger-herons, 20+ African Finfoots (finfeet?!) and a perched Congo Serpent-eagle on a single, hour-long boat ride, undoubtedly, my top African forest trip ever in terms of rarities. On the mammal front, sublime spell overlooking the incomparable Langoue bai in Ivindo NP, with Water Chevrotain, Elegant Needle-clawed Galago, Congo Clawless Otter, and a near constant procession of Forest Elephants and Situtungas was almost as good. A scouting trip to Bolivia in August brought goodies like Horned Curassow, Bolivian Recurvebill, Blue-throated Macaw north of Trinidad and hordes of Red-fronted Macaw at a great, new, community-run lodge (administered by Bird Bolivia), Ocellated Crake, and Ash-breasted Tit-Tyrant. SE Brazil in September produced long-awaited Red-billed Curassow and White-winged Cotinga at Linhares, Russet-winged Spadebill at Augusto Ruschi, and Brazilian Laniisoma at Guapi Assu, as well as an unexpected Dwarf Tinamou at Serra da Canastra. Red-fronted Macaw, Bolivia, copyright Jonathan Rossouw The year ended in superb fashion, with a full month exploring the Antarctic Peninsula, the Falklands and circumnavigating South Georgia. Moulting Emperor Penguin near the newly discovered Snow Hill Island colony in the Ross Sea was the standout rarity, though it paled in comparison with Steeple Jason's Black-browed Albatross colony and South Georgia's overwhelming spectacle of beaches thronged with King Penguins, Antarctic Fur Seals and "weaner" Southern Elephant Seals. Roll on 2007 !