China declared war on sparrows — and lost catastrophically.

The Great Sparrow Campaign: When China Declared War on Birds

Mao's ecological catastrophe began with a very small enemy

Mao's campaign to exterminate sparrows backfired catastrophically: without birds to eat locusts, plagues destroyed crops and contributed to a famine that killed tens of millions.

In 1958, as part of the Great Leap Forward, Chairman Mao Zedong declared war on Eurasian tree sparrows. The birds ate grain, he reasoned, and eliminating them would increase China's food production. Citizens were ordered to bang pots, drums, and make constant noise to prevent sparrows from landing — exhausting the birds until they fell dead from the sky.

Millions of Chinese participated enthusiastically. Schools and workplaces organized competitions. Children beat drums and waved flags. Estimates suggest that hundreds of millions of sparrows were killed in the campaign's first year. Initial results seemed promising: without sparrows eating the grain, harvests appeared to improve.

But a disturbing chain of events was already underway. Sparrows don't just eat grain — they eat locusts. Without their primary predator, locust populations exploded across China in 1959 and 1960. The insects devoured crops far faster than sparrows ever could.

Mao quietly dropped sparrows from the pest list and added bedbugs. But the ecological damage was done. Combined with poor agricultural policies, the campaign contributed to the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961, which killed between 15 and 55 milli…

💡 Chairman Mao also declared war on rats, flies, and mosquitoes — the 'Four Pests' campaign. The fourth pest was changed from sparrows to bedbugs after ornithologist Zheng Zuoxin warned of the consequences.