A bulky, large-headed vanilla-and-brown shrike. Singles and small groups of up to 6 inhabit open broadleaf woodland and riverine woodland in arid savanna, where they prefer to perch conspicuously on taller trees that are adjacent to bare ground. They perch and watch for invertebrates, which they hawk off trunks or hunt on the ground, before returning to a sentinel perch. They may form the core of mixed-species flocks and have been recorded following hornbills and eating prey they disturb. They have many calls, the most characteristic of which is a distinctive, shrill plover-like “kleeew-keeuw.”