This Gray-headed swamphen was one of my life birds from my last trip to Florida. To bird-nerds like myself, a life bird is one that you have never seen before. We get pretty excited about things like that!
These birds are waders, preferring habitat with a lot of vegetation in the water. This habitat has a different sort of look than the usual wavy or still water, and it leads to a lot of smaller broken-up reflections combined with all sorts of random floating objects on the water. It can be a little hard to render.
Gray-headed Swamphens are native to India and southeast Asia. In Florida, some that were kept as pets escaped and have established a breeding population. I took the photos this painting is based on in the Orlando area. Although beautiful birds, they pose a serious problem, just like other exotics. They are now the largest rail in North America, and they seem to be out-competing the other rails, like the beautiful Purple Gallinules.
