Great Grey Shrike breeds in semi-open or open habitats in subarctic and temperate climates with scattered trees, bushes, fence-posts and powerlines, forest edges and clearings in the N, sometimes marshland and peat bogs. Non-breeding habitats are similar. Its wide distribution covers most of Europe E to C Siberia, C & S Asia, N Africa & the Middle East (Yosef et al. 2020). The European strongholds are in Fennoscandia & CE Europe (Keller et al. 2020). It is an intra-Eurasian migrant, with winter quarters generally S of the breeding sites.