Australian bird the French boy copied (8)
I believe the answer is:
emulated
'copied' is the definition.
('emulate' can be a synonym of 'copy')
'australian bird the french boy' is the wordplay.
'australian bird' becomes 'emu' (I've seen this before).
'the french' becomes 'la'.
'boy' becomes 'ted' (I've seen this before**).
'emu'+'la'+'ted'='EMULATED'
(Other definitions for emulated that I've seen before include "Rivalled" , "Tried hard to be as good as someone" , "Imitated" , "Male duet strove to equal" , "Tried to equal or copy" .)