A man was caught pleasuring himself while kneeling over a helpless seagull in a bizarre sex act.
David Lee, 40, was caught on camera performing a sex act while watching pornography on his mobile phone.
He admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the bird at 1am last August in an alleyway in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear.
The case was heard at South Tyneside Magistrates' Court where gulls on the roof could be heard calling out as the bench heard evidence.
Prosecutor Lesley Burgess told the court Lee chased one bird before picking up a smaller gull and was caught on CCTV looking at his phone while holding it.
He then pulled up his pants and gave the bird a "little kick", the court heard.
Lee, from Sunderland, was arrested at a nearby takeaway and told police he picked up the gull because he thought it was hurt and was looking on his phone to find out what he should do.
But instead of searching for a vet's phone number, as he claimed to have done, police checks revealed Lee had actually been looking at porn sites, the court was told.
Annalisa Moscardini, defending, said Lee has a history of "mental ill health" and asked for a psychiatric report to be prepared ahead of sentencing.
Chairman of the Bench, Fay Gilbert, told Lee: "The word 'bizarre' has been used on more than one occasion.
"I have to say that, as experienced magistrates, it is one of the most unusual cases we have come across in the magistrates' court.
"We do find this to be a deliberate or gratuitous attempt to cause suffering to an animal, or shall we say, a bird, and therefore we feel that a psychiatric report would be most appropriate in this case."
Ms Burgess said the prosecution will ask for an order preventing Lee from owning animals.
Magistrates adjourned the case for sentencing on May 23.
Lee was charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal – in this case a Herring gull – under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
Like all wild birds, gulls and their eggs and nests are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
