unlike many typical warblers, the sexes are almost identical. this is a small species with a grey back, whitish underparts, a grey head with a darker "bandit mask" through the eyes and a white throat. it is slightly smaller than the whitethroat, and lacks the chestnut wings and uniform head-face color of that species. the lesser whitethroat's song is a fast and rattling sequence of "tet" or "che" calls, quite different from the whitethroat's scolding song.