The northern white-crowned shrike is a large and fluffy passerine, measuring 19–23-cm long and weigh 42–58 gram.

The sexes are similar, but juveniles have a brown crown, white head sides, and grey breast.

Although birds in the north of the range are larger than in the south, the difference is clinal and the northern white-crowned shrike may be monotypic.

It also will feed from the backs of large mammals, like an oxpecker, and occasionally will eat fruit which has fallen to the ground.

The neat thick-walled cup nest is constructed from grass and spider webs in a horizontal tree fork 4–6 metres above the ground.