[1][2] The name Tibanica has its origin in Muysccubun, the language of the Muisca Confederation, the former country on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense before the Spanish conquest.

Tiba means "lord", niki; "gate, altar" and ica or icu refers to the supreme being in the Muisca religion, Chiminigagua or the afterlife.

The accepted meaning is thus "portal of the altars"; the entrance to a sacred place for the indigenous Muisca.

[3] In Tibanica, 24 bird species have been registered, of which one endemic, uniquely to this wetland, the black-winged kite (Elanus caeruleus).

[4][5] Other bird species as the Bogotá rail (Rallus semiplumbeus), spot-flanked gallinule (Gallinula melanops bogotensis), and Apolinar's wren (Cistothorus apolinari), named after Colombian monk and ornithologist Apolinar María, have been spotted in Tibanica.