Female or male fantail (3)
I believe the answer is:
hen
'female' is the definition.
(female chicken)
'male fantail' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'male' could be 'he' (he refers to a man) and 'he' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'n' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'or' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hen that I've seen before include "Female lobster, fowl" , "Coop resident" , "Farm bird" , "Laying bird" , "Domestic fowl" .)