Crossword Genius

Old English character seen with British dicky bird (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

thornbill

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

'old english character seen with british dicky' is the wordplay.
'old english character' becomes 'thorn' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'seen with' says to put letters next to each other.
'british' becomes 'b' (abbreviation e.g. in 'BBC').
'dicky' becomes 'ill' (I've seen this before).
'thorn'+'b'+'ill'='THORNBILL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for thornbill that I've seen before include "Hummingbird" , "bird" , "Warbler" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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