This species is highly pelagic, rarely approaching land, except to nest and rear young.

It occurs in the Pacific Ocean, nesting in the Cerro de Los Inocentes mountain of the Juan Fernández Islands off Chile.

[2] It is a transequatorial migrant, finding its way to subtropical waters off Japan before returning to its nesting sites.

The population of this bird is decreasing due to introduced cats on its breeding islands.

The common name commemorates the Norwegian ornithologist Leonhard Hess Stejneger.