With its bandit mask, the Southern Grey Shrike looks similar to the Great Grey Shrike, but the former prefers arid, open scrub areas and the latter grassland with sparse woodland. Both hunt from a vantage point such as a bush or fence post

The Southern Grey Shrike, like all shrikes, impales its prey on a thorn or spike or wedges it in a branch fork or between rocks so that it can eat it in several sittings. Prey includes insects, small mammals and small reptiles.