It will sail with William Bird (8)

I believe the answer is:

boatbill

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'bird' is the definition.
(boatbill is a kind of bird)

'it will' is the wordplay.
'it' becomes 'boat' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'will' becomes 'bill'.
'boat'+'bill'='BOATBILL'

'sail with william' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Irish News.

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