And I know better than to shoot into a high contrast situation. But sometimes it turns out. Some may not like this image but it intrigues me.

[MikeNArk]

Produces silhouettes. Still like to see the woodpecker on the cactus.

[angkymac]

Very interesting silhouette of bird and tipped cactus head.
The silhouette enhances that perspective.
Angky.

[normhead]

Walk around to the other side of the cactus? (Best option) Or, over-expose 2 stops for backlit. (Be prepared for an ugly mess, but sometimes it works.)

[tuco]

You could also put the camera in spot metering mode and expose for the cactus. So what if your sky gets bleached out in a shot like that.