National bird perching on city light (7)
I believe the answer is:
lantern
'light' is the definition.
(lantern is a type of light)
'national bird perching on city' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'national' could be 'n' (abbreviation listed in Chambers) and 'n' is located in the answer.
'bird' could be 'tern' (tern is a kind of bird) and 'tern' is present in the answer.
'city' could be 'la' (Los Angeles) and 'la' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lantern that I've seen before include "Enclosed lamp" , "Enclosed light" , "Light in a transparent protective case" , "Light in a protective casing" , "outside D [DECORATION]" .)