It is endemic to the Indian Subcontinent where it is found in tall grasslands and is best known for the leaping breeding displays made by the males during the monsoon season.

The male has a contrasting black and white breeding plumage and distinctive elongated head feathers that extend behind the neck.

The only similar species is the Bengal florican (Houbarobsis bengalensis) which is larger and lacks the white throat, collar and elongated plumes.

In 1782 the English illustrator John Frederick Miller included a hand-coloured plate of a female lesser florican in his Icones animalium et plantarum.

[7] The genus Sypheotides earlier included what is now Houbaropsis bengalensis (or Bengal florican), the two species being small and showing reverse sexual size dimorphism.

The tarsus is long in Sypheotides and the seasonal plumage change in male has led to the retention of the separate genus,[8] although the two genera are evolutionarily close.

Around three 4 inch long, ribbon-like feathers arise from behind the ear-coverts on each side of the head and extend backwards, curving up and ending in spatulate tip.

The females and males in non breeding plumage are buff with black streaks with darker markings on the head and neck.

[17] The species is said to move in response to rainfall and their presence at locations can be erratic, with sudden large numbers in some seasons.

[1][20] Managing florican habitats as grassland interspersed with croplands and pastures spared rotationally provided optimal results at low production-level.

Indigenous tribal hunters regularly shot the males during the breeding season, as they were easy to spot because of their courtship display.

[14] Lesser floricans feed on a wide variety of small vertebrates and invertebrates which include worms, centipedes, lizards, frogs and insects such as locusts, flying ants and hairy caterpillars.