The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 2 plus 4 letter word BIRDS OF PREY
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
B
I
R
D
S
O
F
P
R
E
Y
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "They may make brief drops, ending with ‘takeaway’" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case they may make brief drops, ending with ‘takeaway’ = birds of prey.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.