The explosive growth of ornithology in Colombia over the last ten years is a phenomenon that deserves an investigation of its underlying causes; at the same time, the examination of the development of the discipline in this country leads to the question of the existence of a national Colombian ornithology. In this essay, I present a historiographic analysis of bird study in Colombia to identify the period of emergence of the discipline, and examine the characteristics of the contemporary ornithological guild and those of its insertion in the global context.