The world population of the Lesser Grey Shrike funnels in from breeding grounds in Eurasia to an area that is ten times smaller on the non-breeding grounds in the thornbelt of southern Africa, chiefly in the Kalahari basin. The species is abundant in open savanna habitat on the non-breeding grounds, where it is regularly spaced in individual territories and behaves conspicuously as a perch hunter. It has declined considerably during the last 200 years, and the non-breeding grounds offer highly favourable conditions for assessing and monitoring the world population. Extrapolation according to vegetation types of stratified survey data across southern Africa indicates a world population of 6.1 million birds (95% confidence 5.0-7.3 million) during the mid 1990s. However, for sensitive monitoring, the establishment of a standard-effort index is more appropriate than the assessment of the total population. Keywords: southern African thornbelt, Kalahari basin, stratified counts, Botswana.