Proportional integral derivative (PID) controller tuning is an area of interest for researchers. This paper presents a novel method for PID controller tuning using a modified biogeography-based optimization(MBBO) algorithm. Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is a novel evolutionary algorithm that is based on the mathematical models of biogeography. Biogeography is the study of the geographical distribution of biological organisms. In the BBO model, problem solutions are represented as islands, and the sharing of features between solutions is represented as immigration and emigration between the islands. In this paper, a modified version of the BBO is proposed to improve its convergence. The MBBO algorithm is compared with the BBO using benchmarks functions. The proposed algorithm is applied to the problem of PID controller tuning and is compared with conventional biogeography-based optimization (BBO), and Particle swarm optimization (PSO).