> Does Jaybird handle java.util.Date as a parameter?

No, it is not part of the specification.

> I had to put in a workaround for MySQL, which required java.util.Date to
> be converted to java.sql.Date before being sent to setParameter().

That's not a workaround, that's exactly how you should handle that with
JDBC.

> I'd like to factor this part of the code out to a MySQL specific
> implementation, but don't want to go through the work if Jaybird
> will require the same.
> Does the JDBC specification speak to this?

It does not tell that java.util.Date should be supported by the driver, the
only known mappings are available for java.sql.Date, java.sql.Time and
java.sql.Timestamp. It is the responsibility of the application to do the
conversion.

Roman