Crossword Genius

Bird a long time in top half of tree (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tanager

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'bird' is the definition.
(tanager is a kind of bird)

'a long time in top half of tree' is the wordplay.
'a' becomes 'an'.
'long time' becomes 'age' (an age is a period of time).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'top half of tree' becomes 'tr' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'an'+'age'='anage'
'anage' placed within 'tr' is 'TANAGER'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tanager that I've seen before include "Songbird of the bunting family" , "American songbird" , "A bird" , "South American singer" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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