* Shred egg, nested by birds close to tree (5,5)

'close to tree' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'shred egg nested by birds' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'shred' could be 'whit' (synonyms) and 'whit' is present in the answer.
'egg' could be 'o' (an 'o' resembles an egg) and 'o' is located in the answer.
'birds' could be 'emus' (emu is a kind of bird) and 'emus' is found in the remaining letters.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?