This species is marine and pelagic, occurring over warm waters and generally keeping away from land except near colonies. Its diet comprises mostly of fish and squid with only minor proportions of crustaceans. Prey is caught mainly by pursuit-plunging and pursuit-diving, but also by surface-seizing. Feeding in association with other shearwaters and also noddies (Anous) has been seen. Its breeding season is variable, beginning in March in Hawaii. Individuals form colonies on slopes among rocks or in lava fields on oceanic islands (del Hoyo et al. 1992).

The Christmas Shearwater nests on remote islands in the central Pacific, from the Hawaiian Islands (U.S.A.) in the north, south to Phoenix Island (Republic of Kiribati), and east to the Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia) and Easter Island (to Chile). Outside the breeding season, it ranges across the Pacific, having been recorded off the coasts of Mexico and northern Chile in the east, to the Bonin Islands (Japan) in the west (del Hoyo et al. 1992).