Thanks to those of you who ventured a guess on the mystery warbler from Jamaica! Images can be seen at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freds-pix/sets/72157613195221976/ 

The tally of guess is as follows:

Yellow Warbler ??  ??  3
Nashville Warbler??  ??  ??  2
Chestnut-sided Warbler??  ??  1
Northern Parula??  ??  ??  ??  ??  ???  1
Tennessee Warbler?? ??  ??  ??  1

The winner by plurality is Yellow Warbler, and this concurs with the opinions of the experts in Jamaica. (I must admit that this astonishes me...the last warbler I would have thought of as I observed this bird is the Yellow.) But this likely is the "mangrove" or "golden" subspecies (Dendroica petechia petechia). One responder sent me a very nice email that included this information:



 
"You can feel confident
in identifying it as a first year Yellow Warbler based the grayish legs
with yellow foot linings, the generic Dendroica bill structure,
the yellow pattern visible in the under-tail, and the all yellow undertail
coverts (which you captured very well in the last photo). ?In overall
plumage, the gray nape, the yellow edges to all of the flight feathers,
the near perfect off-white eye ring, and the very uneven (splotchy) pattern
of yellow on the breast and sides are all very typical of the drabbest
lot of first winter birds (usually females, but such drab males are occasionally
found too). ?Many NA guides include a representative illustration
of the drab gray plumage, but not of the splotchy yellow one that you have
so well captured; and for good reason too. ?Yellow Warblers attain
this splotchy look via the continuous loss and replacement of head and
body feathers, but this only happens once they have arrived at their wintering
grounds. ?By the time we see we see this bird in the spring it will
be wearing its summer finest.
"


Of great interest to me is that the Jamaican birders were quite perplexed by this bird but came to identify it as a Yellow because of a closest match. One scientist---a bird bander---in Jamaica said, "Immature 
Yellow Warbler would certainly help to explain the rufous beginning to show on 
the crown. Interestingly, all the Yellow Warblers I've handled around 
Burwood Beach in their 1st Basic plumage have all matched the migratory D.p. aestiva 
group, never seen anything like described for the resident D.p petechia 
group."

Plate 9 in the Warblers book (Peterson series, Dunn/Garrett) shows a first spring and first fall female. I guess these are as close as any to the bird I observed. 

Gotta love birding! I started in 1963, and there's always a new challenge. 

Fred Burggraf
Dentsville, MD
Charles Co.