Young bird to avoid on the heather (8)
I believe the answer is:
duckling
'young' is the definition.
(I know that duckling is a type of chick)
'avoid on the heather' is the wordplay.
'avoid' becomes 'duck' (duck can mean to avoid).
'on' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, letters appear on others).
'the heather' becomes 'ling' ('ling' can be a synonym of 'heather').
'duck'+'ling'='DUCKLING'
'bird to' 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 duckling that I've seen before include "Young swimming bird" , "little fowl" , "Young waterfowl" , "Young mallard, for instance" , "Young swimmer" .)