Maybe dark snake meeting female bird out at night? (10)

'maybe dark' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adjective which matches the answer.

'snake meeting female bird out at night?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'snake' could be 'ess' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'ess' is present in the answer.
'bird' could be 'owl' (owl is a kind of bird) and 'owl' is located in the answer.
'at' could be 'in' and 'in' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?