Crossword Genius

Very hungry bird with mouse, rejecting head and tail (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ravenous

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

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

'head and tail' is the wordplay.
'head' becomes 'nous' (synonyms).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'tail' becomes 'rave' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'nous' after 'rave' is 'RAVENOUS'.

'bird with mouse rejecting' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ravenous that I've seen before include "Really hungry, could eat a horse" , "Voraciously hungry" , "Extremely hungry" , "Really hungry, starving" , "Intensely hungry" .)

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