What White House’s eagle vs. goose post doesn’t show — the Canadian goose won that fight

An X post by the White House recently featured no text just an image of a bald eagle, wings spread, staring off into the distance, while standing on the neck of a Canada Goose.

The photo seemed to tell an entire story of dominance and submission. But there was much more to it than that.

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“This photo is from a documented 20-minute encounter on frozen Lake Ontario where a bald eagle attacked a Canada goose,” a reader-generated caption under the post soon read, using the correct name for the lake. “The goose fought back and survived after the eagle gave up and retreated.”

It’s true. The goose/eagle faceoff was captured a year and a half ago in Burlington, Ont., by photographer Mervyn Sequeira, who posted numerous pictures of the 20-minute battle to his Instagram account , and was interviewed by media about the event, which was covered by National Post .

“It was like boxers in a ring,” Sequeira said at the time , calling the matchup “very symbolic in the political context.”

“The eagle kept repeatedly attacking, and the goose was hissing and pecking as best it could, defending itself,” he said. “And there were times when it seemed hopeless for the goose … I thought it was over; however it was very, very impressive. The goose fought back and came out of that and survived the day.”