Great capture of behaviour!
It is very hard to accurately interpret what is going on from a single instant frozen in a photograph. Though an interesting thought, I do not know of other examples of passerines physically returning a chick to the nest so I would rule this one out.
Weaver finches are very social birds and many species nest in colonies. In these situations it would be quite common to see males and females squabbling around the nest. Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia write-up on the Baya Weaver (quite a good one IMO).
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The males are
polygynous, mating with 2 to 3 females one after another. Males build many partial nests and start attracting females. A male finishes the nest to its completion only after finding a mate, after mating the female lays about 2 to 4 white eggs and incubates them. The females are solely responsible for incubating and bringing up the brood. After mating with a female the male goes on to woo more females with its other nests. Females are known to lay their eggs in the nests of other females.
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From this I think you could hypothesise that perhaps two females are competing for the same nest, or perhaps one of the females was trying to lay eggs in another nest and was being dissuaded by the male and female who "owned' the other nest. If the bird in the middle is indeed an immature, I doubt that the male and female above and below are the parents, because of the apparent aggression shown in the image. Maybe the young bird is a recent fledgling from another nest?
As I said, there are lots of possibilities, and only through careful study can you definitively interpret such as observation.
Bird Behaviour Question: Baya Weaver
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Originally Posted by Bill Dix
