Flier for very strong tea to begin with in church (9)
I believe the answer is:
chaffinch
'flier' is the definition.
(chaffinch is a kind of birdanimal)
'very strong tea to begin with in church' is the wordplay.
'very strong' becomes 'ff' (musical abbreviation for fortissimo, 'very strong').
'tea' becomes 'cha' (cha is a type of tea).
'to begin with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'ff' put after 'cha' is 'chaff'.
'chaff'+'in'+'ch'='CHAFFINCH'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for chaffinch that I've seen before include "Garden bird" , "European bird with black and white wings" , "Small European songbird" , "Common bird" , "flier" .)