Crossword Genius

Fish on time to keep an eye on birds? (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

twitch

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'fish on time' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with contact as well as being verbs in their base form.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?

'keep an eye on birds?' is the wordplay.
'keep' becomes 'own' (keep can mean to own or possess).
'an eye' means to look at the middle letters (eye can mean the centre of something).
'on' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'birds?' becomes 'titch' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The central letter of 'own' is 'w'.
'w' inserted inside 'titch' is 'TWITCH'.

'to' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for twitch that I've seen before include "jump" , "Pang, tic" , "Spasmodic muscle contraction" , "Jerk suddenly" , "Short, jerky motion" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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