We report on the bluish green upconversion luminescence of niobium ions doped silicate glass by a femtosecond laser irradiation. The dependence of the fluorescence intensity on the pump power density of laser indicates that the conversion of infrared irradiation to visible emission is dominated by three-photon excitation process. We suggest that the charge transfer from O(2-) to Nb(5+) can efficiently contribute to the bluish green emission. The results indicate that transition metal ions without d electrons play an important role in fields of optics when embedded into silicate glass matrix.