Wow Canada Goose flying upside down !

Boblou · Oct 24, 2020

Not very nice pictures but....weird !
Never seen something like this from this big bird.

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Palouse · Oct 24, 2020

Weird! Maybe he is planning on going way south—waaaay south!
I wonder if his name is West?

Boblou · Oct 24, 2020

Palouse said:
Weird! Maybe he is planning on going way south—waaaay south!
I wonder if his name is West?

Maybe some problem with gyroscope.

dburanich · Oct 24, 2020

It's gotta be something in the air!!

Boblou · Oct 24, 2020

dburanich said:
It's gotta be something in the air!!

Maybe Covid-19.

dossy · Oct 24, 2020

Now that's weird! And what a great catch!

Boblou · Oct 24, 2020

dossy said:
Now that's weird! And what a great catch!

Thank you dossy, appreciate.

Mike Buckley · Oct 24, 2020

Way too funny! Other possible explanations:

It wanted to impress a bird that had caught its fancy with its flying skills.
That bird that had caught its fancy was flying overhead and it wanted a good look.
A bird that was flying overhead was about to poop, so it flew upside down to make sure it would avoid being hit by the poop.
It had a few too many drinks and none of them were water.
It was doing the back stroke with its feet (notice that they're sticking up above the body rather than trailing it).

Boblou · Oct 24, 2020

Mike Buckley said:
Way too funny! Other possible explanations:

It wanted to impress a bird that had caught its fancy with its flying skills.

That bird that had caught its fancy was flying overhead and it wanted a good look.

A bird that was flying overhead was about to poop, so it flew upside down to make sure it would avoid being hit by the poop.

It had a few too many drinks and none of them were water.

It was doing the back stroke with its feet (notice that they're sticking up above the body rather than trailing it).

All your explanations possible haha !

Clix Pix · Oct 25, 2020

Now that is a strange sight, indeed!!! LOL! Great timing that you were able to capture this! Maybe he was in the midst of doing a rollover or a drastic wing tilt to turn and went a little too far?! Whatever, this sure is funny!

ETA: just did a quick Google and found this info from Science Focus: https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/can-birds-fly-upside-down/

"But geese do use a manoeuvre called ‘whiffling’ where they roll their body upside down and twist their neck to keep their head the right way up. This lets them rapidly lose speed and height for a fast landing."

warth man · Oct 25, 2020

Its head is the right way up though. Very odd but good capture.

Boblou · Oct 25, 2020

Clix Pix said:
Now that is a strange sight, indeed!!! LOL! Great timing that you were able to capture this! Maybe he was in the midst of doing a rollover or a drastic wing tilt to turn and went a little too far?! Whatever, this sure is funny!

ETA: just did a quick Google and found this info from Science Focus: https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/can-birds-fly-upside-down/

"But geese do use a manoeuvre called ‘whiffling’ where they roll their body upside down and twist their neck to keep their head the right way up. This lets them rapidly lose speed and height for a fast landing."

Thank you Clix Pix from this informative text.
Appreciate.

Boblou · Oct 25, 2020

warth man said:
Its head is the right way up though. Very odd but good capture.

Thank you warth man.

dburanich · Oct 25, 2020

Clix Pix said:
Now that is a strange sight, indeed!!! LOL! Great timing that you were able to capture this! Maybe he was in the midst of doing a rollover or a drastic wing tilt to turn and went a little too far?! Whatever, this sure is funny!

ETA: just did a quick Google and found this info from Science Focus: https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/can-birds-fly-upside-down/

"But geese do use a manoeuvre called ‘whiffling’ where they roll their body upside down and twist their neck to keep their head the right way up. This lets them rapidly lose speed and height for a fast landing."

That certainly explains it.
Great researching work Connie.

Mike Buckley · Oct 25, 2020

dburanich said:
That certainly explains it.

That would explain it for me if the bird's neck was twisted so the head could be face-down. In this case, the bird's head is face-up. Perhaps that's just a momentary position but we don't have any proof of it.

dburanich · Oct 25, 2020

Mike Buckley said:
That would explain it for me if the bird's neck was twisted so the head could be face-down. In this case, the bird's head is face-up. Perhaps that's just a momentary position but we don't have any proof of it.

It looks to me like the body is upside down and the head is twisted upright.
Maybe the OP can confirm.

Palouse · Oct 25, 2020

dburanich said:
It looks to me like the body is upside down and the head is twisted upright.
Maybe the OP can confirm.

Looks that way to me too.

Mike Buckley · Oct 25, 2020

dburanich said:
It looks to me like the body is upside down and the head is twisted upright.
Maybe the OP can confirm.

Now that I've reviewed the images for about the fifth time, I'm confident that you're correct about the first image. Unclear to me about the second image.

dburanich · Oct 25, 2020

Mike Buckley said:
Now that I've reviewed the images for about the fifth time, I'm confident that you're correct about the first image. Unclear to me about the second image.

I agree with that.
The second one is not as clear to call it.

Palouse · Oct 25, 2020

I'm sure of #2, too:

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