Fingerlings 3 is the third in Andrew Bird’s series of live albums called Fingerlings. Unlike the previous Fingerlings, Fingerlings 3 contains songs not recorded live in front of an audience; "Dear Dirty" is a studio track and "The Water Jet Cilice" and "Ethiobirds" were recorded live (solo) at Andrew’s home studio in a barn in rural western Illinois. Tracks "Dark Matter" and “Scythian Empire" are live recordings of songs that were later included on Bird's 2007 album Armchair Apocrypha.