Hawking, say, with bird following animals around (7)
I believe the answer is:
stephen
'hawking say' is the definition.
(Stephen Hawking)
'bird following animals around' is the wordplay.
'bird following' becomes 'steph' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'animals' becomes 'pens' (pen is a kind of animal).
'around' means to look at the middle letters.
The central letters of 'pens' are 'en'.
'steph'+'en'='STEPHEN'
'with' is the link.
(Other definitions for stephen that I've seen before include "Male" , "English king from eleven hundred and thirty five" , "Author of The Shining" , "Man" , "Old king" .)