Bird needs power on the wings upfront to hunt (5)
I believe the answer is:
prowl
'hunt' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'bird needs power on' is the wordplay.
'bird' becomes 'owl' (owl is a kind of bird).
'needs power' becomes 'pr' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'owl' after 'pr' is 'PROWL'.
'the wings upfront to' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for prowl that I've seen before include "Move stealthily (as tiger)" , "Walk menacingly" , "Roam in search of prey" , "Walk around predatorily" , "Move in search of prey" .)