This little thief has been nicking the sunflower seeds we put out for the birds for a while now. I just can’t bear shooing him away, so we simply put up two more bird houses on the balcony for the birds which he’s not touching. One entire bird house to himself seems to be satisfactory!
I read somewhere that capsaicin is a handy squirrel deterrent, as birds cannot taste it or something.
Here’s an article about it https://secretaardvark.com/blog/the-hot-sauce-hack-squirrels-dont-want-you-to-know/
I read that too at some point, but I don’t want to drive the lil buddy away. The birds have taken to the other bird houses, and there’s plenty of sunflower seeds and suet balls to go around for all critters in our garden :)