A few cotes have been built for the birds (7)

'birds' is the definition.
(avocet is a kind of bird)

'a few cotes have been built' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' is found in the answer.
'few' could be 'v' and 'v' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'cotes' is 'ocets' which is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'for the' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?