The shoulders and upper-wing coverts are a deeper grey giving a dark M pattern across the spread upper wings.

Chatham Islands petrels are rarely observed away from the colony; the few at-sea records are from ships in oceanic waters.

[2][3] Chatham Islands petrels nest in burrows under the forest canopy to which they are generally faithful to over time.

[4][6] Before conservation efforts began, the size of the Rangatira population was limited by burrow competition with the broad-billed prion Pachyptila vittata, of which an estimated 330,000 pairs inhabit the island.

Conservation efforts for the Chatham Islands petrel started in the late 1980s, the initial focus of which was locating burrows and determining the cause of breeding failure.