Birds in tree almost caught by dogs (9)

I believe the answer is:

cockerels

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'birds' is the definition.
(cockerel is a kind of bird)

'tree almost caught by dogs' is the wordplay.
'tree almost' becomes 'el' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'caught by' indicates putting letters inside.
'dogs' becomes 'cockers' (cocker is a kind of dog).
'el' placed within 'cockers' is 'COCKERELS'.

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for cockerels that I've seen is " birds".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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