The total expenditure of removing wrens from crow's nests (5)
I believe the answer is:
costs
'the total expenditure of removing' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'wrens from crow's nests' is the wordplay.
'from' suggests deleting specific letters.
'crowsnests' with 'wrens' taken away is 'COSTS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for costs that I've seen before include "Is priced at" , "Expenditures, outlays" , "Overheads" , "Fees" , "prices" .)