Sparrows
Sparrows were targeted because they ate grain seeds, disrupting agriculture. Nests were torn down, eggs were broken, and nestlings were killed. Initially the campaign did improve the harvest but, as sparrows ate insects more than seeds, Mao ordered the end of the campaign. With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounded problems already being experienced, leading to the Great Chinese Famine in which around 30 million people died of starvation. Rats, flies, mosquitoes and, later, cockroaches were the subject of similar campaigns.
