Following bird tongue, frog tail (9)
I believe the answer is:
emulating
'following' is the definition.
(to emulate someone is to follow their example)
'bird tongue frog tail' is the wordplay.
'bird' becomes 'emu' (emu is a type of bird).
'tongue' becomes 'latin' (Latin is an example).
'tail' indicates one should take the final letters.
The final letter of 'frog' is 'g'.
'emu'+'latin'+'g'='EMULATING'
(Other definitions for emulating that I've seen before include "Imitating" , "Glutamine (anag.)" .)