Bird comes down shortly before light (7)
I believe the answer is:
lantern
'light' is the definition.
(lantern is a kind of light)
'bird comes down shortly before' is the wordplay.
'bird' becomes 'ern' (ern is a kind of bird).
'comes down shortly' becomes 'lant' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'ern' after 'lant' is 'LANTERN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lantern that I've seen before include "Light in a protective casing" , "Transparent case for holding a light" , "Enclosed lamp" , "Light in a transparent protective case" , "Type of lamp" .)