The early bird? (4)
I believe the answer is:
dawn
'the early bird?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'bird?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'bird?' could be 'daw' (daw is a kind of bird) and 'daw' is located 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).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dawn that I've seen before include "Break of day" , "Early morning sing-song?" , "Aurora was its goddess" , "beginning" , "Aurora, poetically" .)