Flier's strain hugging women (5)
I believe the answer is:
swift
'flier's' is the definition.
(swift is a kind of birdanimal)
'strain hugging women' is the wordplay.
'strain' becomes 'sift' ('sift' can be a synonym of 'strain'**).
'hugging' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'women' becomes 'w'.
'sift' enclosing 'w' is 'SWIFT'.
(Other definitions for swift that I've seen before include "Jonathan . . . . . wrote 'Gulliver's Travels'" , "Fast-moving bird" , "like a peregrine falcon?" , "Quick and rapid like a long-winged bird" , "wit?" .)