It breeds in South and Central Europe and western Asia in the summer and migrates to winter quarters in southern Africa in the early autumn, returning in spring.

The lesser grey shrike was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin under the binomial name Lanius minor.

[2] Gmelin based his description on the "Pie-grièche d'Italie" that had been described in 1770 by French polymath the Comte de Buffon and illustrated with a hand-coloured engraving by François-Nicolas Martinet.

[8] The adult male lesser grey shrike has its nape, cheeks, ear and eye coverts and front part of the crown black.

The female has similar plumage but the head is dark grey rather than black, the ear coverts brownish-black, the upperparts a brownish-grey and the underparts less pink than the male.

It lacks the grey back and rump which are instead pale brown and faintly barred, and the underparts are white and cream without any pink.

All birds have a brownish-black beak with a paler base to the lower mandible, brown irises and black legs and feet.

[9] The lesser grey shrike hunts from a strategic post, wire or branch and primarily feeds on insects which it catches in the air or on the ground.

[9] The bird occasionally impales freshly caught prey on thorns for use later, but this is done to a much lesser extent than by some other shrike species.

Repeated experimental exposure of birds to a food surplus significantly increases the rate at which they impale freshly caught prey.

Other causal factors in the failure of this species to hoard may be a shortage of suitable caching sites and the fact that the bird lacks practice in storing food and this constrains its learning ability.

It is built by both birds out of the stems of various flowering plants such as cudweed (Gnaphalium) and (Filago), and thyme (Thymus), and lined with whisps of wool, hairs, roots and feathers.

Another factor may be changes in agricultural practices with small enclosures with varying crops and patches of woodland being replaced by large fields.