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Hiker, following bird, crosses the road recklessly (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

jaywalker

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'hiker' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'bird crosses the road recklessly' is the wordplay.
'bird' becomes 'jay' (jay is a kind of bird).
'crosses the road recklessly' becomes 'walker' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'jay'+'walker'='JAYWALKER'

'following' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for jaywalker that I've seen before include "Careless pedestrian, a danger to motorists" , "Middle-of-the-road pedestrian" , "Reckless urban pedestrian" , "one taking risks on road" , "Person crossing the road dangerously" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.
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