A huge thank you to all those who wrote emails or called the shop the other day to let me know about PAWS in Lynnwood! I called and they would have taken the little bird, but in the end, i decided not to take it there - read on for why. I believe now that it had probably hit a window right before it was discovered by some customers on the edge of the cafe floor (we have a large garage door that opens and it was standing on the edge of the floor where the garage door normally is). It had been swaying slowly back and forth with its eyes closed, panting. It then flew to a storage area in the shop, unfortunately. After receiving some advice from kind tweeters readers, I put on gloves and prepared a little box for it with napkins inside. I tried getting the bird from the shelf it perched on, but it escaped my grasp and perched in an even less accessible spot. this was on my lunch break and I didn't
have time to chase birds around once that was over. I figured i'd try to collect it before I left for the night and take it to PAWS if need be. However, by the end of the night it was flitting around (seemingly quite healthily) to all the different light fixtures but could not figure out how to get out the huge garage door opening. My coworker and I ended up capturing it and putting it in the box after trying to delicately do so for a half an hour. I took it outside and let it go - it seemed to no longer be stunned - it was certainly actively flying around the shop and it seemed to hate being in the box for the 2 minutes it took to take it outside.
After this i recalled once when I was a kid a little sharp-shinned hawk flew into my family's living room window and it behaved very similarly to this little kinglet when I found it below the window, stunned. I could obviously be very wrong as I'm not an ornithologist, but I do think the little bird was just stunned. Fortunately her/his wings were apparently fine! :)

And, while on my lunch I checked birdweb.org and it was indeed a golden-crowned kinglet, the first I've had the opportunity to identify! I guess my instinct was right on - I just usually wouldn't know how to ID a small bird like that without my Sibley guide. I'm much better at ID'ing ducks. :)

Thank you again to those who offered advice! I now know who to call if/when I ever discover a hurt animal or bird!

Emily Stoll
Seattle, WA