Females are similar but duller and browner with a brown mask and no white wing-patch.

It breeds in north-east China, Korea, Japan and far-eastern Russia (Ussuriland, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands).

Northern birds migrate south for the winter with a few reaching southern China.

The isolated race sicarius is found only in the mountains of Gansu Province in west-central China.

With some other species from the Lanius genus, like the great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor), the bull-headed shrike is known to impale some of its preys upon a sharp point – usually thorns – so the food can be ripped into bite-sized pieces more easily.