Biogenic sedimentary structures offer critical insights into paleoenvironmental reconstructions and past ecological conditions. However, accurate interpretations rely on a thorough understanding of the behavioral controls acting on bioturbators in modern environments – factors that remain only partially documented. To help fill this gap, we investigated the environmental determinants of stamping, a foraging technique used by extant flamingos that, in its rotating form (“rotating stamping”), produces a distinctive central sediment mound encircled by a peripheral trench. The general objective of this paper is to propose a predictive relationship that may help in the interpretation of the flamingo trace fossil record. We compiled records from the literature and online video repositories for all modern flamingo species worldwide and analyzed them in relation to landforms, depositional settings, habitat types, water depth, pH, salinity, tidal regime, climate, and seasonality. Stamping behavior was primarily associated with shallow-keeled species, while records for deep-keeled species remain limited, particularly in South America. Flamingos showed a consistent tendency to stamp in coastal brackish lagoons with very shallow water (∼22 cm) and slightly alkaline conditions (pH ∼7.8), differing from the typically high-salinity, highly alkaline lacustrine deposits where fossil flamingo tracks are often found. Stamping occurred preferentially on muddy substrates, suggesting that mudstones are the lithologies most likely to preserve such biogenic structures. Our results demonstrate that flamingos respond to a broad range of environmental variables, with marked species-specific variation. Consequently, paleoenvironmental interpretations of fossil track-bearing deposits (such as those attributed to the Phoenicopterichnum “ichnosubfacies”) should be made with caution and supported by independent sedimentological and geochemical evidence.