Birds I hide in a ship (7)
I believe the answer is:
siskins
'birds' is the definition.
(siskin is a kind of bird)
'i hide in a ship' is the wordplay.
'hide' becomes 'skin' (a hide is an animal skin).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'a ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'i'+'skin'='iskin'
'iskin' put into 'ss' is 'SISKINS'.
(Another definition for siskins that I've seen is " little birds".)
I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail and The Irish News.
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