Birds start to sing as well as musicians (10)

I believe the answer is:

sandpipers

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

'start to sing as well as musicians' is the wordplay.
'start to' indicates taking the first letters.
'as well as' becomes 'and' (I've seen this in other clues).
'musicians' becomes 'pipers' (piper is a kind of musician).
The first letter of 'sing' is 's'.
's'+'and'+'pipers'='SANDPIPERS'

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