Crossword Genius

Bird — and cat beginning to track it (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tomtit

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

'cat beginning to track it' is the wordplay.
'cat' becomes 'tom' (a tom is a male cat).
'beginning to' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'track' is 't'.
'tom'+'t'+'it'='TOMTIT'

'and' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for tomtit that I've seen before include "Popular name for a songbird" , "Bird that sang "Willow ____"" , "One of various small common birds" , "Type of bird, may be blue" , "another bird gets both" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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