Australian sextet, Roman Deity, start attracting the local birds (8)
I believe the answer is:
avifauna
'local birds' is the definition.
(avifauna are the birds of a local region)
'australian sextet roman deity start attracting' is the wordplay.
'australian' becomes 'A' (common abbreviation).
'sextet' becomes 'vi' (group of six - VI are the Roman numerals for six).
'roman deity' becomes 'faun' (I've seen this in another clue).
'start' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'attracting' is 'a'.
'a'+'vi'+'faun'+'a'='AVIFAUNA'
'the' is the link.
(Other definitions for avifauna that I've seen before include "Local birds" , "The birds of a particular region" , "Flyers locally" , "Bird collection" .)