Attempt by shy little bird (7)
I believe the answer is:
gosling
'little bird' is the definition.
(a young goose)
'attempt by shy' is the wordplay.
'attempt' becomes 'go' (go is a kind of attempt).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'shy' becomes 'sling' (I've seen this before).
'go'+'sling'='GOSLING'
(Other definitions for gosling that I've seen before include "Young waterbird" , "Little bird" , "Young goose" , "Young bird" .)