Another thing to try out when faced with backlighting is AE lock. On the back of your camera is a button labeled with an asterisk. When faced with backlight, you can point your camera at an area with similar lighting as your subject, press the AE Lock to lock in exposure, then come back to your backlit subject to compose and take the shot. You will still have backlight, but your subject will be exposed properly and you will have an easier time in post. After you have pressed the AE Lock button, you will have about 15 seconds to recompose, it varies from camera to camera, and you may even have a menu setting to set the time limit. I generally use "Spot" or "Partial" metering, so I'm not sure how this works with "Evaluative" or "Center Weighted", but it should be the same. Sometimes my subjects are small and far off and even Spot metering will not filter out backlight.
Attached are some screenshots of a male Brown Thrasher singing from the top of our pear tree. I used screen grabs because I am too lazy to type out the EXIF data, LOL.
