Crossword Genius

Seen on choppy sea, aquatic bird from the orient (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

eastern

'from the orient' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'seen on choppy sea aquatic bird' is the wordplay.
'seen on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'choppy' indicates an anagram.
'aquatic bird' becomes 'tern' (tern is a kind of aquatic bird).
'sea' is an anagram of 'eas'.
'eas'+'tern' is 'EASTERN'.

(Other definitions for eastern that I've seen before include "Could be Chinese" , "from afar" , "Possibly Japanese" , "Chinese', for example" , "in Beijing, possibly" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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