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Lesser Grey Shrikes are small shrikes. Their front is faint-buff to light-grey, with a white chin patch, which contrasts sharply with very wide black eye stripes and frons/forehead and a grey crown, nape of the neck and mantle. The flight feathers are black, with a small white wing patch. The long, narrow tail is black, with wide white outer edges. The irises are dark-brown. The short, strong, slightly hooked bill is dark-grey. The legs and feet are dark-grey. First-year birds are slightly paler than adults, with white edges on the wing coverts. Juveniles are slightly paler than adults with white edges on the wing coverts and with a vermiculated light-grey back.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Lesser Grey Shrike is available HERE .

Lesser Grey Shrikes are a strongly migratory species. Their breeding range extends from south-eastern Europe via Asia Minor and Iraq into mid-latitude central Asia. They overwinter in southern Africa. During migration they can be found in the East African highlands, along the Red Sea, parts of the Levant and in Arabia and Iran.

In Europe Lesser Grey Shrikes are breeding migrants to the Mediterranean coastal region from north-eastern Spain via Italy and the Balkans and Greece eastward along the northern coast of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea into Ukraine, Bielorussia and western Russia.

Lesser Grey Shrikes have a preference for open habitats with scattered perches, such as small groves with surrounding grassland or cultivation, also alleys and along roadsides, especially with low power and/or telephone lines.

A. Sarok reports spotting Lesser Grey Shrikes in Vojvodina, Serbia, in the timeframe 2010-2024. All sighting and photographic information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by A. Sarok.