Fossils have been found from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of western Liaoning, China.

The only known species, Bohaiornis guoi, was named by Dongyu Hu, Li Li, Lianhaim Hou and Xing Xu in 2011 on the basis of a fully articulated and well-preserved skeleton of a sub-adult.

[1] Bohaiornis is the type species of Bohaiornithidae, a family of large predatory enantiornitheans from the Early Cretaceous.

This second specimen (IVPP V17963) showed that the snout was relatively broad compared to other enantiornitheans, and also preserved several rock-like structures within the abdominal cavity.

The presence of only a few large and rough gastroliths in birds and other dinosaurs usually indicates a mainly carnivorous diet, suggesting that B. guoi may have had a raptorial ecology.