Italian citizens — small number feeding web-footed birds (7)
I believe the answer is:
genoese
'italian' is the definition.
(I know that Genoese is a type of italian)
'number feeding web-footed birds' is the wordplay.
'number' becomes 'no' (abbreviation for 'number').
'feeding' means one lot of letters goes inside another (one word is fed by another set of letters).
'web-footed birds' becomes 'geese' (I've seen this in another clue).
'no' put into 'geese' is 'GENOESE'.
'citizens small' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for genoese that I've seen before include "From the capital of the Liguria region of Italy" , "from Italian city" , "Coming from the birthplace of Christopher Columbus" , "From an Italian port" , "people like Columbus" .)