The Peruvian diving petrel was formally described in 1828 by the French naturalists René Lesson and Prosper Garnot under the binomial name Puffinuria garnotti.

In his book Manuel d'ornithologie Lesson quotes the text of a description written by Garnot.

The remaining percentage of the Peruvian diving petrel's food is fish, mainly anchovies.

The Peruvian diving petrel has become locally extinct on many of its former colonies and now nests only on a few offshore islands.

They breed year round, laying a single egg in a burrow dug into guano.