Aiming at the shortcomings of slow convergence and poor solution accuracy in the optimization process of the usual cuckoo search algorithm, novel cuckoo search algorithm is proposed and applied to image registration. Firstly, this paper analyzes the deficiency of L\'evy flight in usual cuckoo search algorithm; and using information sharing, local enhancement operators and new methods to build nests to improve population diversity, local exploration capability and convergence speed. Through 15 test functions and 2 medical image registration experiments, we show that improved cuckoo search algorithm has better convergence speed, calculation accuracy and robustness.