Since teeth were still present in some more derived short-tailed avialans, Jixiangornis seems to have evolved its toothlessness independently of modern birds.

The fossil was found in the Yixian Formation near Beipiao City, western Liaoning, China.

Ji et al. (2002) considered Jixiangornis capable of stronger flight than either Archaeopteryx or Jeholornis.

Their phylogenetic tree shows Jixiangornis forming a clade (called "Euavialae" by Ji et al.) with birds that excludes Archaeopteryx and Jeholornis (=Shenzhouraptor).

This approach, however, was problematical given the numerous differences between Jixiangornis and Shenzhouraptor/Jeholornis, and a phylogenetic analysis performed in 2014 found that it may actually be more closely related to short-tailed avialans (Pygostylia) than to Jeholornis, as originally thought.