Bird cut short by jabber (4)
I believe the answer is:
rave
'jabber' is the definition.
('rave' can be a synonym of 'jabber')
'bird cut short' is the wordplay.
'bird' becomes 'raven' (raven is a kind of bird).
'cut short' means to remove the last letter.
'raven' with its final letter taken off is 'RAVE'.
'by' is the link.
(Other definitions for rave that I've seen before include "Talk wildly and irrationally" , "Rage" , "Illegal party; talk madly" , "Modern youth dance - sounds hysterical" , "modern dance music" .)