As a part of Chinese traditional painting, Chinese ancient flower‐and‐bird painting is deeply loved by people in both artistic expression and artistic conception. Flower‐and-bird paintings are mostly based on the rich images of flowers, birds, insects, fish and so on in nature, and have unique techniques and forms of expression in terms of artistic techniques. This paper studies the development trend of flower‐and‐bird painting from the Stone Age to the Qing Dynasty. The earliest embryonic form of flower‐and‐bird painting can be traced back to the Stone Age of prehistoric civilization. Since the Han Dynasty, a relatively clear pattern of flower‐and‐bird painting has emerged; six dynasties have become a special painting category. After the Tang Dynasty, due to the tolerance and openness of the era, the painting field also ushered in an open style of creation; On the basis of inheriting the creation tradition of the Tang Dynasty, the Song dynasty paid more attention to the overall layout in the detailed expression of flower and bird paintings; the flower‐and‐bird painting of Yuan dynasty has the characteristic of integration, which critically inherits the traditional aesthetic view of creation; The theme of flower‐and‐bird painting creation in Ming Dynasty is richer, especially the aesthetic taste is closer to the common class; with the influence of Western oil painting, flower‐and‐bird painting in Qing Dynasty brought profound influence on the creation form of flower‐and‐bird painting, which was also an innovation in the history of Chinese painting. Generally speaking, Chinese flower-and‐bird painting has distinct characteristics of the times in different times. Throughout the development process of Chinese flower‐and‐bird painting, we can clearly see the persistence and inheritance of tradition, at the same time; it is closely combined with continuous development and innovation.