Sole island with more spruce for a variety of bird (8-5)

I believe the answer is:

plantain-eater

'a variety of bird' is the definition.

'sole island with more spruce' is the wordplay.
'sole' becomes 'planta' (I've seen this before**).
'island' becomes 'i'.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'more spruce' becomes 'neater' ('neat' can be a synonym of 'spruce').
'planta'+'i'+'neater'='PLANTAIN-EATER'

'for' is the link.

(Another definition for plantain-eater that I've seen is " Bird, the touraco".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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