First man to hold bird in structure on the Nile (5,3)
I believe the answer is:
aswan dam
'on the nile' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'first man to hold bird' is the wordplay.
'first man' becomes 'adam' (first man in the Bible).
'to hold' is an insertion indicator.
'bird' becomes 'swan' (swan is a kind of bird).
'adam' placed around 'swan' is 'ASWAN DAM'.
'in structure' 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 aswan dam that I've seen before include "Huge structure in Africa" , "Nile construction of 1902" , "Egypt's lake district" , "massive barrier" , "Egyptian water barrier" .)