Feathers are better than a baton movement (8)
I believe the answer is:
downbeat
'a baton movement' is the definition.
(movement with a conductor's baton)
'feathers are better than' is the wordplay.
'feathers' becomes 'down' (down can mean bird feathers).
'are better than' becomes 'beat' (to beat is to be better than).
'down'+'beat'='DOWNBEAT'
(Other definitions for downbeat that I've seen before include "Low-key" , "Miserable; relaxed" , "Pessimistic; understated" , "Conductor is likely to make this movement" , "Casual" .)