To address the limitations of the original Secretary Bird Optimization Algorithm (SBOA), such as insufficient population diversity, weak local exploitation ability, and a tendency to become trapped in local optima when solving complex optimization problems, this paper proposes a Multi-Strategy Improved Secretary Bird Optimization Algorithm (MISBOA). First, a chaotic elite initialization strategy is introduced to improve the quality and diversity of the initial population. Second, an adaptive spiral Lévy flight strategy is designed to enhance the balance between global exploration and local exploitation during the iterative process. Third, a dynamic neighborhood-guided mutation strategy is incorporated to maintain population diversity and improve convergence accuracy in the later search stage. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, MISBOA is comprehensively evaluated on the IEEE CEC2014, CEC2017, and CEC2020 benchmark suites. Experimental results demonstrate that MISBOA achieves superior convergence speed, optimization accuracy, and robustness compared with several representative metaheuristic algorithms. Furthermore, MISBOA is applied to Otsu-based multilevel threshold image segmentation. The segmentation performance is assessed using PSNR, FSIM, SSIM, and visual quality comparisons. The results indicate that MISBOA can generate more accurate and stable segmentation outcomes, demonstrating its strong potential for solving complex numerical optimization and artistic image segmentation problems.
Yuan et al. (Mon,) studied this question.