A road north associated with the birds (5)
I believe the answer is:
avian
'a road north associated with the birds' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'a road north associated with' is the wordplay.
'road' becomes 'via' (I have seen 'Roman road ' mean 'via' so perhaps 'road' could also mean 'via'**).
'north' becomes 'n' ('N' can be a synonym of 'north').
'associated with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a'+'via'+'n'='AVIAN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for avian that I've seen before include "Lizard with adhesive foot-pads" , "Birdlike" , "Resembling a bird" , "To do with birds - like a dangerous flu" , "Regarding birds" .)