This species rarely occurs on land, except when breeding. It may be associated with cool currents where it feeds on squid and small fish (data lacking). Its breeding season begins in November, when it forms loose colonies on bare rocky slopes, in thick vegetation or peat of offshore islands or stacks. It lays one egg in burrows or rocky crevices (del Hoyo et al. 1992).

The Black-bellied Storm-petrel has a circumpolar distribution from islands of the Scotia Archipelago, through the southern Indian Ocean to the Antipodes Islands (New Zealand). Outside the breeding season, it migrations north into the subtropical and tropical zones of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, regularly occurring north up to the equator (del Hoyo et al. 1992).