The little bustard was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.

[6] The genus name and the specific epithet tetrax is the Latin word for an unidentified gamebird.

The central European population once breeding in the grassland of Hungary became extinct several decades ago.

On 20 December 2013, the Cypriot newspapers 'Fileleftheros' and 'Politis', as well as news website 'SigmaLive', reported the discovery of a dead little bustard in the United Nations Buffer Zone.

[10] The bird's habitat is open grassland and undisturbed cultivation, with plants tall enough for cover.

Tracking of male Little Bustards has revealed that they are nocturnal migrants that make frequent stopovers in non-irrigated and irrigated croplands to reach more productive agricultural post-breeding areas.