Gold to confer on American ornithologist (7)
I believe the answer is:
audubon
'ornithologist' is the definition.
(I know that Audubon is a ornithologist)
'gold to confer on american' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'gold' could be 'au' (Au is the chemical symbol for gold) and 'au' is located in the answer.
'on' is within the answer.
The remaining letters 'dub' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for audubon that I've seen before include "Famous bird illustrator" , "He painted birds" , "John James -, US ornithologist and artist" , "Famous illustrator of American birds" , "J. J. -; US bird artist" .)