Feathers from the bird were used to create the characteristic hat of the bersaglieri, an Italian ace infantry formation.

The genus Tetrao was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.

[1] The genus name is the Latin word for a game bird, probably a black grouse.

[1][3] The type species was designated as the western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) by George Robert Gray in 1840.

The fossil record of this genus is extensive: