Almost half of Alcatraz united, enthralled by French bird man? (8)
I believe the answer is:
falconer
'bird man?' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'almost half of alcatraz united enthralled by french' is the wordplay.
'almost half of alcatraz' becomes 'alc' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'united' becomes 'one' (as in a phrase like 'we are one').
'enthralled by' indicates putting letters inside ('enthral' can mean 'capture').
'french' becomes 'fr' (abbreviation).
'alc'+'one'='alcone'
'alcone' going inside 'fr' is 'FALCONER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for falconer that I've seen before include "Person who breeds and trains hawks" , "Trainer of hunting hawks" , "One who breeds or hunts with birds of prey" , "Clean for bird trainer, say peregrine" , "Trainer of birds of prey" .)