Part of plant, around the tip of stem providing shelter for birds (5)
I believe the answer is:
roost
'shelter for birds' is the definition.
'roost' can be an answer for 'shelter' (thesaurus). I'm not sure about the 'for birds' bit.
'part of plant around the tip of stem' is the wordplay.
'part of plant' becomes 'root' (I've seen this before).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the tip of' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'stem' is 's'.
'root' placed around 's' is 'ROOST'.
'providing' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for roost that I've seen before include "It's sometimes ruled" , "Rest on a perch" , "unwelcome to come home to?" , "Resting perch for birds" , "somewhere to sleep" .)