Welfare of avian species may be covered by general legislation but, even in welfare-conscious countries, the special requirements of birds are rarely considered, partly because of a paucity of scientific publications about the physical needs, cognitive abilities, expressions of stress, a range of emotions and pain in birds. We now know that cognitive abilities of some birds may rival those of higher primates. Pain is almost always difficult to judge in birds because its expression is suppressed (masking). In the expression of other emotions, some bird species, if not most, may be very explicit vocally or in feather position and body posture but these have not yet been well documented and they present a previously unutilised means of assessing welfare in birds. Hence, this project investigated how birds express emotions visually or vocally. My research on wild Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) recorded vocalisations and classified them according to type and context (sample size N=120; recorded vocalisations N=70 h). Their vocalisations were found to express many emotions, which will be presented, including a newly found distress call. The magpies' calls also extend to referential signalling emitted to alert and recruit group members to a specific danger. Changes in feather positions, body posture, head and beak position were recorded on video, tagged by areas of feather movement, and scored in specific contexts (conspecific/ predator etc) using tawny frogmouths (N=44, Podargus strigoides) and galahs (N=10, Cacatua roseicapilla). Eight specific areas were identified in the head region alone that carried unambiguous information about the birds' state and type of arousal (agonistic/ affiliative). Data on feather position derived from tame birds that were either hand-reared or rescued and then released again. The importance of these observations will be linked to welfare and why there is an urgent need to revise and improve welfare of birds.