Well you don’t see that everyday.

A homeless man in Malibu, California has been convicted of strangling a brown pelican to death.

Just before 6 p.m. on August 22, Sergio Alvarez, 30, was spotted by a passerby who quickly flagged down a Los Angeles Country sheriff’s deputy. Witnesses say Alvarez was spotted with his hands around the pelican’s throat as the bird flapped its wings in distress until it finally went limp.

When questioned by police, Alvarez claimed he found the bird already dead and was going to eat it. Witness accounts conflicted with this story.

He was arrested and booked into jail on $20,000 bail.

Friday, he pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty to a bird. The transient was sentenced to 60 days in jail and one year of probation.

Brown pelicans are a fully protected species in California, though no longer endangered. The California Wildlife Center took the bird’s body.

There are an estimated 50,000 homeless people living the Los Angeles County.