Crossword Genius

Surrealist birds heading to the east (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ernst

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

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

'birds heading to the east' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'birds' could be 'erns' (ern is a kind of bird) and 'erns' is found within the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ernst that I've seen before include "He painted" , "Surrealist; stern (anag.)" , "German-born painter, Max, co-founder of dadaism, d. 1976" , "artist's name" , "Max -, twentieth century German Surrealist artist" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sun.
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