They could be tempted to eat birds though. So maybe not.
Cats do not protect birds. They are avid hunters of birds. I have a feeling birds are preferred over small rodents.
We had outside cats. My wife loved to feed the birds. The bird feeders wound up being cat feeders. They lay in wait until a bird came to eat, and the bird wound up being eaten.
Same with squirrels. Squirrels loved to raid the bird feeders, and wound up being a meal themselves.
We were at a neighbors home where their two cats were laying outside of the sliding glass patio doors. A bird slammed into the glass, went to the ground, and promptly into a cat’s mouth.
And our cats wound up being food for coyotes and owls. I don’t miss them. It’s more fun watching birds.