This species is found in tropical and sub-tropical seas and is mostly pelagic. It feeds primarily on small fish, especially flying fish, but will also take squid. Most prey is caught by plunge-diving but flying-fish are sometimes taken in flight. Breeding is seasonal in places but can be more or less continuous in others. It is loosely colonial, nesting in rocky crevices, or on the ground on small, remote oceanic islands preferentially on cliffs where take-off is easy. No regular migration is known, although individuals can undergo extensive dispersal out to sea (del Hoyo et al. 1992). On St Helena (South Atlantic), birds tracked with GPS during incubation and chick rearing undertook trips of 1000 - 2000 km, reaching as far as 400 - 750 km from their breeding colony, respectively (S. Oppel in litt).

This species ranges across tropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the north-west Indian Ocean and the eastern Pacific. Breeding colonies are found on the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, on Chanaral Island off Chile, off the Pacific coast of Mexico, in the Caribbean, Cape Verde, on islands in the southern Atlantic, off Senegal, and on the coasts of Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia (del Hoyo et al. 1992, Diop et al. 2019).