Artist puts bird outside as a feature (5)
I believe the answer is:
trait
'a feature' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'artist puts bird outside' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'artist' could be 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts) and 'ra' is located in the answer.
'bird' could be 'tit' (tit is a kind of bird) and 'tit' is located in the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'as' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for trait that I've seen before include "Decorative band" , "Attribute, characteristic" , "Distinguishing feature" , "Habit" , "Feature of personality" .)