It is a stocky bird with yellow or orange-yellow underparts, olive green upperparts, a grey head and heavy bill.

Richard Bowdler Sharpe described the species in 1884 as Laniarius lagdeni, from a specimen collected in the vicinity of Kumasi in Ghana.

[5] Juveniles have duller plumage overall, with brownish upperparts yellow or white underparts, sometimes with some streaking, and a grey-brown bill.

[5] Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests in west Africa to an elevation of around 700 m, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo at an elevation of 2100 to 2800 m.[5] Classified in the IUCN Red List as Near Threatened, it is becoming rare due to habitat loss.

[14] Lagden's bushshrike hunts large insects, such as grasshoppers, and other arthropods, as well as small vertebrates, foraging in forest canopy 10–30 m (35–100 ft) above the ground.