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.