Flying pelican holding tail of salmon in crest (8)
I believe the answer is:
pinnacle
'crest' is the definition.
(pinnacle is a kind of crest)
'flying pelican holding tail of salmon' is the wordplay.
'flying' indicates anagramming the letters.
'holding' indicates putting letters inside.
'tail of' indicates one should take the final letters.
The final letter of 'salmon' is 'n'.
'pelican' is an anagram of 'pinacle'.
'pinacle' placed around 'n' is 'PINNACLE'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for pinnacle that I've seen before include "tip-top" , "The highest level" , "Acme" , "The highest point, summit" , "Topmost point" .)