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).
'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 before).
'no' placed inside 'geese' is 'GENOESE'.
'citizens small' 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?
(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" .)