Yokel eating first piece of high game bird (8)
I believe the answer is:
pheasant
'game bird' is the definition.
(pheasant is a kind of game bird)
'yokel eating first piece of high' is the wordplay.
'yokel' becomes 'peasant' (I've seen this before).
'eating' is an insertion indicator.
'first piece of' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'high' is 'h'.
'peasant' placed around 'h' is 'PHEASANT'.
(Other definitions for pheasant that I've seen before include "Game-bird" , "Cock" , "Large game bird" , "Wildfowl" , "something to pluck?" .)