This is the show off goose that was bizarrely photographed flying upside down when it was snapped by an amateur photographer near the Dutch town of Arnhem.

Yet despite the fact that the photo was taken earlier in the year, heated debate is still going on as to exactly why geese will do this, with photographer Vincent Cornelissen, age 49, getting thousands of messages and comments from around the world about the image.

Vincent has been fascinated with photography since he was a kid and said that even before this famous snap, taking challenging photographs of birds was a passion.

Talking about capturing his spectacular viral image, he told Newsflash: “I always say that to find a bird and photograph it in a special way is incredibly satisfying and relaxing.”

And with this picture of the goose flying upside down he certainly captured his most spectacular image to date, with it going viral when published.

He said he took the snap in March this year and yet people are still debating exactly why the goose was seen flying upside down.

Talking about how he managed to capture the image, he said: “The weather was bad so I put on my waterproofs and sat with my back against a tree looking over a lake.”

It was then that he saw three geese and noticed that one of them was behaving strangely.

He said: “I saw that one of the three had trouble flying in a straight line. He was having a hard time which I thought was because of the wind and seemed to be struggling so I took some pictures of him.”

He had then not thought much more about it until he finally developed the pictures, and said: “I immediately realized that I had captured something special, but at the same time I was afraid that no one would believe me. The image looked like it was edited in Photoshop.”

But even though he knew it was special, he was still amazed that it became so popular on social media, and indeed many people had accused the image of being a fake, even though upside down flying is actually something that is known.

He added: “. . . I got a message from a Dutchman who lives in Norway and knew this phenomenon. He lives next to a lake and regularly sees geese doing this. There is even a name for it: whiffling goose.”

The phenomena has a Wikipedia entry that describes whiffling as something that often involves the bird turning upside down, which helps it go to the ground quicker, and is then reversed when the bird turns back around, which once again slows the descent.

Speculation as to why this happens centres around it being a move to avoid avian predators or possibly in regions where bird hunting is known to be practised in order to spend less time in the air.

Vincent noticed that it might also help the goose to descend more quickly if it see something like a lake that it wants to reach without overshooting.

And Lars Soerink of the Dutch Bird Protection Society said it might just be the goose learning new tricks, saying: “Once young geese have mastered flying, they start to see what is possible and how far they can go.”

But he also admitted it could just as easily be that “. . . they do it to brag to their peers. Like, look at me!”

It draws a comparison with Jonathan Livingston Seagull from the bestselling book of the same name who attempts to become an ever better seagull by flying differently to his peers – which results in him being outlawed but eventually becoming a revered and inspirational leader for his flock.

Whatever the reason, Vincent said he had literally received tens of thousands of messages from all over the world including Australia, Turkey, England and North and South America.

He added that other photographers and videographers had managed to capture the phenomena, although he had not seen one that was as sharp as his own photo.

Vincent takes many bird pictures which he shares on his social media posts like his VincentTC1971 Facebook page, and he also experiments with other picture possibilities.

He said: “I always look around and listen to all the sounds. Not only in nature but also on the streets. Sometimes I give myself a goal for that day, for example, taking a picture in black and white with high shadow contrasts. I like to challenge myself.

“Most of the time I use my own filters. (Lightroom/Photoshop) I like the matte look in a picture. For bird photography, I often use Topaz denoise to erase grain and add some sharpness.”

And despite the high quality of his images, he is still an amateur, although he said he would like to be a semi-professional one day.

But no matter how much skill a photographer brings to the job he admits that at the end of the day a great snap sometimes just “depends on the day” as with his snap of Jonathan Livingston Goose.

He added that meant: “Weather conditions, my mood and often a lot of luck and patience!”

Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/VincentTC1971
Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/b0unce1971/