Reddish-brown parrots heading north across India (5)
I believe the answer is:
sepia
'reddish-brown' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'parrots heading north across india' is the wordplay.
'parrots' becomes 'apes' (I've seen this before).
'heading north' is a reversal indicator.
'across' indicates putting letters inside.
'india' becomes 'i' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'apes' backwards is 'sepa'.
'sepa' enclosing 'i' is 'SEPIA'.
(Other definitions for sepia that I've seen before include "Reddish-brown; cuttlefish ink" , "source of ink" , "Colourant" , "Brownish tone associated with old photographs" , "tone of pictures?" .)